ALL CAMDEN MINNEAPOLIS SINGLES FINAL
It was an all-Camden final for the 2025 Minneapolis City Singles title with Shayla Thao beating Patriot teammate Porsoua Ya in two sets. Thao becomes the first “Camden” singles champion. Prior to that the building was known as Patrick Henry and they had four previous champs, the last being Sandy Xiong in 2014. Thao did not lose a set all day and topped two Roosevelt Teddies on her path to the championship. The overall number one seed and defending champion Sophie Mitchell of Roosevelt was headed in that direction, but in the second set of the semis she pedaled back to the left corner and fell. She injured her ankle, taking her out of the competition. Apparently, the same ankle has been previously injured. Mitchell was looking for her third straight city championship. She and current Roosevelt second singles Molly Anderson won the doubles title in 2023. It is unclear whether Mitchell will be ready for either team or individual play next week.
The usual suspect stats again pointed the way to the winner. Thao won side outs .692 to .143 and service points 32-6. Winners belonged to Thao 27-7. In fact she matched Ya’s winner totals on aces alone. She opened both sets with an ace to the right back corner. She picked up a seven point run on her third service pulling out to an 11-3 lead. Ya responded with her only run of the match to close the gap to 11-6. Thao had an avalanche of eight points to close the set with seven going as winners.
It took a bit longer to get to a run in the second set for Thao, five services to be exact, but it was worth six points and that gave her a healthy 13-6 lead. Thao’s aces had a shadow however. She missed four serves in the second set. But Ya could not ignite anything on her serve with only three points in that set.
For some reason the reported score of 14 in the first set baffled me. Usually the score is off by one, not by six.
FIRST SINGLES
Shayla THAO 2, Porsoua YA 0 (reported 21-14, 21-10; recorded 22-8, 22-10)
| Category | THAO | YA |
| Side out | 9/13-.692 | 2/14-.143 |
| Longest side out string | 2 | 1 |
| 3+ Runs | 5 | 1 |
| Longest point string | 8 | 3 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 1, 2 | |
| First point | 1, 2 | |
| Service points | 32 | 6 |
| Serving % | 39/44-.886 | 17/ 18-.944 |
| Point generated off serve | .727 | .333 |
| POINTS | 44 | 18 |
| Points after 11 | 22 | 10 |
| Points after own errors | 7 | 8 |
| Winners after own errors | 4 | 1 |
| STROKES | 159 | 59 |
| Strokes per point | 3.614 | 3.278 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 11 | 4 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 14 | 7 |
| WINNERS | 27 | 7 |
| Aces | 7 | 1 |
| Blocks | 1 | 2 |
| Clears | 3 | 0 |
| Drives | 3 | 1 |
| Drops | 5 | 0 |
| Soft drives | 3 | 1 |
| Smashes | 5 | 2 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 7 | 2 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 3 | 1 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 20 | 5 |
| ERRORS | 11 | 17 |
| Ceiling | 0 | 1 |
| Deep | 0 | 2 |
| Net | 5 | 8 |
| Wide | 1 | 5 |
| Serve | 5 | 1 |
| Even stroke errors | 1 | 11 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 0 | 3 |
| Odd stroke errors | 10 | 6 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 14 | 2 |
| Right | 13 | 5 |
| Largest Lead | 14, 12 | 0, 0 |
| W:E Ratio | 2.455 | 0.412 |
| Margin | 13.00 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | |
| Time | 15:33 |