Tennis True to Tradition
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Exams are over, Commencement is hours away and life is getting a little less hectic for most Blake School students- that is unless you are a boy’s tennis player. For you see early June is Tournament time and it has become somewhat of a custom for the Blake School to make an appearance at the MSHSL’s Class A Tennis tournament. Since 1979, when the tournament split into 2 classes, the Bears have earned a spot in almost every tournament and have captured 12 Class A championships while crowning 9 individual and 3 doubles champions
Tradition held true for the Blake School in 2005 as the Bears went through the Section 5A field 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 to earn the annual trip to State.
First on the MSHSL docket for the Blake School was northern power Virginia. Even the 8:00 am start time didn’t slow the Bears as they dropped the Blue Devils 6-1.
The Blake School’s next opponent was more familiar and more dangerous, the Bears drew the defending Class A Champion Spartans from Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. Blake took the top three singles matches and number one doubles to cement a 4-3 victory and a trip to the state finals.
The table was set for Blake to erase the blemish placed on their record a month earlier by Mounds Park Academy. The Panthers had clawed their way through the lower bracket with a 4-3 win oner Thief River Falls and a 6-1 victory over Waseca create the All-Tri-Metro State finals.
MPA beat the Bears 4-3 on May 6th and those in the know say the match came down to the play Blake’s senior co-captain Dylan Cater and MPA's Bryan Kelly. Kelly pulled out a three-set victory and the Panthers had earned the Tri-Metro crown.
As it did in the teams' regular-season match, the Class A team championship fell on the shoulders of second singles players Cater and Kelly. Once again Kelly prevailed, this time winning a third-set tiebreaker 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6) and MPA captured its first ever State Championship.
Along with the second place trophy the Bears brought home both the doubles and singles championships in the individual competitions. Junior Nick Lebedoff became Blake’s ninth singles champion and Will Hancock and Blake Nicholson became the first Bears since 1995 to hold the doubles title.
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