Class A: Lincoln East wins again as dynasty adds another trophy
By Chris Basnett — For the Nebraska School Activities Association
Another year, another championship for one of Nebraska’s great high school dynasties.
Lincoln East claimed its third consecutive, and fourth Class A state championship in the last five seasons to kick off the NSAA girls state tennis championships, scoring 56.5 out of a possible 60 points for another double-digit win at Woods Tennis Center in Lincoln.
Combined with the East boys team, which has won four consecutive titles, the Spartans have won eight of the last nine boys and girls state championships.
So is it a relief to win the title as a favorite, or a celebration?
“I think it’s a celebration,” East coach Chris Stock said. “We just tell the kids that this tournament, and anything in the postseason, is just a reward for all the hard work you put in all year. It doesn’t mean you know what’s going to happen, but it’s a reward just to be in it and to have those top seeds and so forth. It’s just about honoring what they did throughout the season.
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East claimed three of the four divisions, winning No. 1 singles, No. 1 doubles, and No. 2 doubles, and finished third in No. 2 singles.
The Spartans also had a clear look at their competition as the event reached the late rounds, facing off against second-place finisher Omaha Marian in the finals at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles, in the third-place match at No. 2 singles, and in the semifinals at No. 2 doubles.
East went 4-0 in those head-to-head matchups, providing the difference in a 56.5-44.5 win over Marian.
Lincoln Southeast, which had fifth-seeded senior Annika Srivastav win the state championship at No. 2 singles, finished third with 40 points.
It was Srivastav who upset defending champion Stella Stempson in the semifinals to prevent East from having entries in all four finals matches.
“We matched up a lot,” Stock said. “I think it’s just the trusting each other and not worrying about outcomes that we preach all season because you can’t control — there’s someone else trying to win too.
“So all we know is that if we win or lose, our teammates are going to support us. And we realize we’re going to need everybody there, whether it’s a singles or a doubles match, because that support is crucial.”
East was led once again by junior Briana Rademacher, who became a three-time No. 1 singles champion with her 6-3, 6-1 win over Omaha Marian’s Aziza Akshalova. It was Akshalova who gave Rademacher (35-1) her only loss this season, 8-4 on May 4.
Rademacher is the fifth Class A girls tennis player to win three consecutive No. 1 singles titles, and the first since Omaha Marian’s Brooke Urzendowski won the last of her four in a row in 2011. A win next season would make her just the third four-time champion.
Rademacher had plenty of time to think about history as weather disrupted the second day of the event. Her finals match, scheduled for a 1 p.m. start, didn’t end until after 5 p.m. Rademacher said she spent the day walking laps around Woods trying to keep herself moving.
“It is a long day waiting,” Rademacher said. “Honestly I just tried to get my mind off it, try to see what my team’s doing. You’re more like, what’s going on around me more than what I’m feeling on the inside.”
All Lincoln East’s two doubles teams did was go a combined 78-0 while sweeping their divisions.
At No. 1 doubles, sophomore Belinda Qiao and freshman Josalin Stock didn’t drop a game at state until their 6-4, 7-5 win over Omaha Marian in the championship match. That victory, the first of East’s title matches to be completed, essentially sewed up the team championship for the Spartans, who were keenly aware of the situation had Marian been able to pull out a win.
“That was a tough match,” Stock said. “And we knew it would be. We played them once this year, and it was super-close (a 9-7 East win in the first match of the season), so we knew it would be tough.”
The No. 2 doubles team of senior Kyler Garcia and freshman Pearl Stempson also finished 39-0, getting past Marian in three sets in the semifinals before cruising to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Lincoln Southeast in the championship match.
Class B: Gretna East’s team effort leads to championship
No champions equaled a championship for Gretna East.
The third-year Griffins won the first ever state girls tennis championship for a Gretna high school May 27, scoring 34.5 points to edge Grand Island Central Catholic by one for the Class B state title at Woods Tennis Center in Lincoln.
“As we got closer to the end of Day 1 we were like, OK, there’s a chance we can do this thing,” Gretna East coach Matthias Mattley said. “And so we’re just really blessed. It’s been great to make history, and these girls earned it, and they deserve it.”
Gretna East didn’t win a gold medal in any of the four divisions, but won enough matches throughout the two-day event to climb to the top of the podium.
The Griffins had to sweat out a pair of finals matches — Grand Island Central Catholic had a finalist at No. 2 singles while Gretna East had defending champion Zoe Katsavelis in the No. 1 singles final.
But after Lincoln Standing Bear’s Elsa Moran posted a straight-sets win over GICC in the No. 2 singles final, Gretna East’s title was secure before the No. 1 singles match finished. It was a good thing for the Griffins too, as Katsavelis was forced to medically retire in the third set of her match against Elkhorn North’s Aubrey Phonephakdy.
“Just about every practice we do these things called therapy moments; we sit down for 10 minutes, and we work on different skills or communications, or work on, like, hey, how does anxiety affect our brains and our bodies, and how do we work through that?” Mattley said.
“So we talked about what championship caliber teams have, and those are kind of those moments of, mentally we’ve got to be able to push through and get through hard days and long hours and stuff like that, and so they were all willing, and they love those moments, and they pushed so hard this season, man. It’s been crazy, but it’s been fun to see.”
Gretna East got a fourth place finish from Adriana Lerch at No. 2 singles, a sixth-place finish from Ainsley Foltz and Hadley Wood at No. 2 doubles, and a seventh-place finish from Jada Freeland and Nitcha Khammahavong at No. 1 doubles.
Elkhorn North was third in a tightly packed team race with 30.5 points. Omaha Skutt finished fourth with 29, while Lincoln Standing Bear was fifth with 26.
No. 1 singles: The breakthrough finally came for Aubrey Phonephakdy. Then the emotions broke out.
In her final state tennis tournament the Elkhorn North senior won her first state championship with a 7-6 (7-0), 2-6, 1-1 (ret.) win over Gretna East’s Zoe Katsavelis.
It was a rematch of the 2025 final, when Katsavelis beat Phonephakdy 6-1, 6-0. The two also matched up just 16 days prior to their finals meeting, with Katsavelis winning 6-1, 6-1.
In each year the duo was the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the event.
It was also Phonephakdy’s third consecutive finals appearance. She finished second as a sophomore, and was third as a freshman.
“I’m just so thankful. I feel like I’ve worked so hard the past four years at state, and all my seasons in high school,” Phonephakdy said. “I really have no words. I’m just so shocked.”
Phonephakdy (30-3) showed the grit of a senior, rallying from a 5-2 deficit in the first set for a 5-5 tie, then tying the match again after Katsavelis took a 6-5 lead. Phonephakdy dominated the tiebreaker; Katsavelis controlled the second set.
It was evenly matched in the third before Katsavelis began to experience apparent cramps in her legs. After tumbling to the ground with the set tied 1-1, Katsavelis was able to get to her feet and play two more points before being unable to continue.
The Gretna East sophomore, who finished 33-2, hadn’t lost a game at state before the championship match, and hadn’t lost more than two games in a set all season.
“I felt that I had the momentum, and I felt good about my game,” Phonephakdy said of her first-set rally.
After Phonephakdy watched nervously as Katsavelis was tended to in the third set, she walked to meet her teammates and burst into tears as the realization that she was a champion began to take hold.
“This was my last time ever playing,” Phonephakdy said. “So I really, really wanted to work so hard.”
No. 2 singles: Elsa Moran became the first state champion in Lincoln Standing Bear’s history, downing Grand Island Central Catholic’s Emily Ye 6-3, 6-0 to win the No. 2 singles title.
Just a sophomore, Moran finished 35-2 while becoming the first individual or team champion in Standing Bear’s three-year history. Moran will try to become a two-class champion next season, when Standing Bear moves to Class A.
No. 1 doubles: Elkhorn’s Ruby Lamski and Ella Holtz went from the No. 6 seed to state champions with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over the top-seeded Kearney Catholic duo of Kit Schrock and Tessa Colling.
Lamski and Holtz (34-6) lost the first set in both their semifinal and final matches, before rallying to become Elkhorn’s first girls tennis state champions since 2008, when Jessica Hottman won the Class B No. 2 singles championship.
No. 2 doubles: Sophomore Josslyn Mins and freshman Amelia Pepplitsch teamed up for Lexington’s first girls tennis championship in 17 years, downing Lincoln Standing Bear’s Jayda Engelbart and Sophia Johnson for the No. 2 doubles championship.
It marked Lexington’s first title since 2009, when Terah Maloley won No. 2 singles, and the school’s first No. 2 doubles title since 2003. Mins and Pepplitsch finished 42-3, with two losses to Class A Kearney.
