BURLINGTON — The Mount Airy men’s tennis team not only won its second consecutive 1A men’s team title Saturday at the Burlington Tennis Center, it also became the first team in 1A history to capture the elusive season triple crown.

After Nick John captured the individual title and the doubles team of Brooks Mayberry and Matt Kessler took the doubles championship two weeks ago, the final piece fell to the team as a whole.

But even with the pressure of defending their team championship, the Granite Bears performed as they had all season and took out the North Carolina School of Science and Math 5-3 for ring number three on the year.

A rain delay forced the Bears to skip their normal warm up session and also cut into two singles matches.

Eric Belton and Nick John both gave Mount Airy early points with singles wins prior to the delay, but when play resumed No. 3 seed Matt Kessler was in a fight for his life and No. 4 seed Brooks Mayberry trailed 3-0 in the first set.

Kessler lost the tiebreaker to George Zhao to fall 6-3, 3-6, 10-6, which left Mayberry, Chance Hall and Taylor Bobbitt as the Bears’ final hope to enter doubles play tied and have a real shot at taking the title.

Mount Airy coach Scott John said he felt if his team could in fact make it to doubles tied 3-3, it was in good shape to come out with the victory.

“We told the guys that we thought more pressure would be on them (Science and Math), because we had been here before and battled through a lot of close matches last year and this year,” John said. “We talked about that if we could just get three singles we would be in good shape because our strength is in doubles. For a while it looked like we may not get there.”

Hall and Bobbitt both lost close matches, but Mayberry, gunning for his fifth career state title as a Granite Bear, dug deep and fought back to give his team the all-important third singles win, with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Kevin Huang.

Mayberry said he drew on experience to calm himself and focus on playing solid tennis to get the win.

“I have experience,” he said. “I always dig myself in a hole, I just knew I had to be scrappy and try and come back. I didn’t have to be spectacular, I just had to be consistent.”

The doubles matchups were no contest, as Mayberry and John reunited after splitting for the state tournament to defeat Will Jackson and Zhao 10-4 and Kessler and Belton easily handled Huang and Sean Kang, 10-3.

“When Brooks won and made it 3-3, that was huge,” John said. “We could breathe a sigh of relief because we knew we’re going to win at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles and just like pretty much all year we dominated there to clinch it. We knew they were deep and pretty solid all the way down and there wouldn’t be any easy spots.”

As for the triple crown, John said it was something that had been mentioned but the Bears did not want to discuss it at length for fear of a jinx.

“We’ve sort of hinted at it,” he said. “I didn’t want to talk about it too much but I knew in the back of my mind that we could win it this year and this would be a good opportunity that we could pull off all three.”

John said the atmosphere in Burlington is unlike any other match all season, with the pressure and intensity obviously kicked up several notches.

But with a core of veteran players who have tasted a good deal of success, he thought the Bears experience would play a big role.

“They were battled tested and I thought that would be to our advantage and it showed,” John said. “Like Brooks, he didn’t panic and we didn’t panic in doubles. We steadied the ship and played well under pressure and that’s what you’ve got to do. It’s a pressure situation here. It’s different. If you can handle the pressure, you can get it done.”

Hall, who said he never expected to have a state championship ring when he began his career at Mount Airy, let alone two, said the fact he and his teammates knew what to expect could do nothing but boost their chances.

“Oh it helps, it helps a lot,” Hall said of experience. “I wasn’t nervous at all. I think confidence can only take you so far but it really kills the nerves, because you know whether you played good or bad heading into today you are a step ahead and that definitely helps a lot mentally.”

Nick John, who left Burlington Saturday with the record for state tennis titles at Mount Airy (five), said to finish out on a high note was nothing short of perfect.

“It feels great,” he said. “This was our goal at the beginning of the year. We knew we could do it and that’s what we shot for, especially Brooks, Chance and I, it being our senior year. This is a perfect way to end out, going out with the triple crown and ending our career as champions. Can’t ask for anything better.”

Contact Thomas Smith at tsmith@mtairynews.com or 719-1920.

Mount Airy 5, NCSM 3

SINGLES

Nick John (MA) d. Will Jackson (NCSM) 6-1, 6-2; George Zhao (NCSM) d. Matt Kessler (MA) 6-3, 3-6, 10-6; Eric Belton (MA) d. Anson Lewis (NCSM) 3-6, 6-1, 10-3; Brooks Mayberry (MA) d. Kevin Huang (NCSM) 6-4, 7-5; Sean Kang (NCSM) d. Chance Hall (MA) 6-2, 6-3; Justin Harden (NCSM) d. Taylor Bobbit (MA) 7-6 (8-6), 6-4

DOUBLES

John/Mayberry (MA) d. Jackson/Zhao (NCSM) 10-4; Kessler/Belton (MA) d. Huang/Kang (NCSM) 10-3