Mayo tennis team rises to the occasion as it's state bound again

May 19—Tej Bhagra is sure not afraid of the moment.

It matters not at all to the Mayo No. 1 singles player that he is just an eighth-grader and somewhere in the range of 5-foot-6, 120 pounds.

Bhagra comes to play, always. He did it again on Thursday, this time in the stakes-filled Section 1AA team tennis final against rival Century.

So did his entire team.

No. 1 seed Mayo, which got a 6-3, 6-2 win from Bhagra at the top of its lineup, also swept the doubles and won at second singles by default as it downed No. 2 seed Century 5-2 at the Rochester Athletic Club.

That sends 18-3 Mayo to the state tournament for the second straight season, both of those section titles having come against Century. A year ago, it was a 6-1 win over Century that did it.

Ninth-ranked Century finished the team portion of its season 16-3.

"I'm just really proud of these guys for persevering," said Mayo coach Jeff Demaray, whose team beat Owatonna 7-0 in the section semifinals Thursday, while Century snuck past Lakeville North 4-3.

"We had some key spots where we needed to persevere (against Century), and we played great there."

One of those was at No. 2 doubles, which is manned by Daniel Meunier and Caleb Neisen. Demaray had concerns there, knowing that his combo had been up and down recently.

But instead of faltering, the duo put together one of its best performances of the year, rolling to a 6-2, 6-3 win. Mayo also got doubles wins from Philip Wisniewski and Ben Erickson at No. 1, and David Teng and Caleb Kennel at No. 3, both of those in straight sets as Mayo showed off its traditional doubles prowess.

"The last part of the year, (Meunier and Neisen) had struggled some," Demaray said. "But they stepped up and played fantastic today. Daniel just played a great match."

But if there was a show-stealer, it was Bhagra.

The eighth-grader was taking on Century's big, strong and power-hitting Mihaljo Skulic in this championship dual. Not only are these two a contrast in proportions, but also in game. While Skulic relies on crushed serves and forehands, Bhagra is a counter puncher who seems to get everything safely and deftly returned, no matter what its miles per hour.

No. 1 singles was one position that the Panthers pretty much knew they had to win against Mayo in order to have a chance at the upset. But the agile, cool and animated Bhagra would have none of it.

He gobbled up the win and the spotlight, mugging to Mayo teammates and fans after a number of his spiciest winning shots.

The impression with Bhagra is, the brighter the lights the better.

"Tej always does best when there are big crowds," Demaray said of his eighth-grader, who's ranked eighth in the state. "He loves when our team is jumping around and pumping him up."

Though Bhagra was favored to win there, it was still a tough one to take for Century. That was true because it knew how deadly Mayo is in doubles. It's been that way forever.

"We knew we pretty much had to sweep in singles," said Century coach Ben Maes, whose team also lost at No. 2 singles by injury default, Henry Kruse bowing early. "Mayo is just so deep (in doubles). But it's frustrating, because you only get so many chances to get to state. We really needed to raise our game today to win. We did raise it some but not quite enough."

So, Mayo is heading back to state once more. And the Spartans are savoring it.

"We all wanted to get to state again and to do it together," Spartans No. 2 singles player and senior Spencer Ohm said. "We've worked so hard for this. To go to state as a team, there is no better feeling. It's the greatest feeling ever to get there."

SEMIFINALS

Mayo 7, Owatonna 0

Singles: Tej Bhagra (M) def. Mac Pilcher 6-2, 6-0; Spencer Busch (M) def. Liam Smith 6-1, 6-0; Zach Thomas (M) def. Thomas Herzog 7-6, 5-7; default; Noah Wisniewski.(M) def. Thomas Oien 6-0, 6-0. Doubles: Philip Wisniewski/Ben Erickson (M) def. Charlie Tucker/Nils Gantert 6-0, 6-3; Caleb Neisen/Daniel Meunier (M) def. Aiden Engel/Damian Boubin 6-4, 6-3; David Teng/Caleb Kennel (M) def. Casey Pederson/evi Kubicek 6-1, 6-1.

Century 4, Lakeville North 3

Singles: Anthony Scheglowski (LN) def. Mihaljo Skulic 7-5, default; Henry Kruse (C) def. Kade Bishop 6-3, 6-3; Prabhav Kaginele (C) def. Andrew Ren 6-0, 6-3; Kian Rehfeldt (C) def. Reid Bishop 6-1, 6-0. Doubles: Zach Hunhoff/Lucas Stanek (LN) def. Cameron Nelson/David Sohn default; Cori Li/Vinay Deep Beeram (C) def. John Glick/Bhanu Prodduturi 6-4, 6-2; Tejas Komaragiri/Ben Heggen (C) def. Soren Krych/Dean Wang 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.

FINAL

Mayo 5, Century 2

Singles: Bhagra (M) def. Skulic 6-3, 6-2; Ohm (M) def. Kruse, 4-6, 2-0, default; Kaginele (C) def. Thomas 6-4, 6-1; Rehfeldt (C) def. N. Wisniewski 7-5 (7-5), 6-3. Doubles: P. Wisniewski/Erickson def. Nelson/Sohn 6-1, 6-3; Meunier/Neisen (M) def. Li/Beeram 6-2, 6-3; Teng/Kennel (M) def. Krych/Wang 6-1, 6-2.