For many years, the Rochester Mayo girls tennis team was a perennial bridesmaid. The Spartans were almost yearly participants in the state team tournament, first held in 1974, but never left toting the state championship trophy.

That changed in 2023, when Mayo won its first team championship, beating Edina 6-1 to win take home the Class 2A crown. It was fitting that Mayo ended its years-long drought by beating the Hornets, the longtime standard-bearer in girls tennis. Many of Mayo’s state tournament disappointments had come at the hands of Edina.

“It means so much to us and the Mayo tennis family,” Spartans coach Jeff Demaray said at the time. “Doing it against Edina is nice. They’ve beaten us so many times.”

Fast forward two seasons, and Mayo’s role has changed — from underdog finally scaling the summit to statewide target. The Spartans repeated as champs last season and go into this year’s state tournament as favorites to win another title.

Three in a row? Can you say dynasty?

Mayo is the No. 1 seed in Class 3A, thanks to its stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking. The Spartans feature a pair of talented singles players at the top of their lineup in juniors Malea Diehn and Aoife Loftus.

The Spartans go into state competition undefeated. They have defeated No. 2 seed Edina twice and downed No. 3 seed Minnetonka in August.

In Class 2A, Blake spent much of the early portion on the season atop the rankings, but Mahtomedi’s late-season surge made the Zephyrs the No. 1 seed. Hill-Murray picked up No. 2 and Blake slid to No. 3

The advent of three-class girls tennis largely came about because of the notion segments of the girls tennis world were being underrepresented. Big, well-heeled schools and programs were dominating the large-school class while the small-school class was mostly the domain of private schools.

The belief was that adding a class would improve possibilities for smaller public schools.

It’s too early to determine whether that was achieved. In Class 1A, the No. 1 seed went to Breck, a longtime private-school power, but the seven other teams in the bracket all hale from public schools. In Class 2A, Blake and Hill-Murray are the only private school programs in the bracket.

Individuals

The individual portion of the state tournament runs Thursday and Friday.

Class 3A: The singles favorite is Eagan senior Cassandra Li, who waltzed undefeated through the regular season. She took third in Class 2A last year. Her biggest challenge appears to come from Rochester Mayo’s Diehn, the No. 2 seed, and Loftus, the third seed.

Class 2A: Sophomore Sam Williams of No. 1 seed Mankato West has been ranked No. 1 in the class for most of the season. Holy Angels junior Elizabeth Payne is seeded No. 2 and Minneapolis Southwest junior Ellen Davis No. 3.

Class 1A: Defending champion Chloe Alley, a junior from Minnehaha Academy, appears poised to defend her crown. She’s lost once all season, to Eagan’s Li, the top seed in Class 3A. Osakis senior Leah Maddock is the No. 2 seed, St. Paul Academy senior Nellie Larson is No. 3, and Crosby-Ironton senior Tori Oehrlein is No. 4. Oehrlein is also one of the state’s top girls basketball players, committed to the Gophers. Last winter she became the fastest girls player in state history to reach 4,000 career points.