After yet another phenomenal season of team tennis, the SPA boys’ tennis team was crowned Class A State champions on Wednesday, June 7 for the second straight year. The team’s march through the postseason began the same way it did a year ago, with two resounding wins in section 4A competition, defeating Humboldt 7-0 in the quarterfinals and Hill-Murray 6-1 in the semifinals. The section final against Mounds Park Academy gave the Spartans their first real test, but they came out on top with a 5-2 win to qualify for the State tournament again.

At State, the Spartans never lost as they defeated Breck 7-0 in the quarters, Foley 7-0 in the semifinals and Rochester 7-0 for the Class A title. In the Pioneer Press article about the team’s win, Spartan tennis head coach Luke Elifson says “It’s hard to repeat, there’s a lot of pressure involved with it.” Junior captain Leo Benson ’24 echoed that statement: “It felt really good to come here and show what we can do. We worked really hard this year,” Benson says in the article. “We got a lot better, and I think it really showed.” Expectations next year will be to do it all again, and Benson says “I think we’ll be ready for it.”

Congratulations to the SPA doubles team of Leo Benson ’24/Maik Nguyen ’24 who won the doubles Class A State Championship on Friday, June 9 after defeating a duo from Litchfield 6-3, 6-1 and Zahir Hassan ’27 who won the third-place singles match, 7-5, 10-4 to finish third.