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Three years ago, the Centennial tennis team won its first UIL state championship. The question after that championship was whether the Titans could do it again the next year.
The question is now when anyone will be able to dethrone Centennial, which on Thursday won its fourth straight 5A state championship.
“This is part of our DNA,” Centennial coach Douglas Fair said after the 10-4 victory over Abilene Wylie at the Annemarie Tennis Center in San Antonio. “They don’t want to be the class that didn’t win state.”
Not that it’s ever easy. There are more than 200 tennis teams in Class 5A across the state, including powerhouses throughout Frisco ISD. Centennial fought off big challenges in this year’s playoffs from Highland Park (10-9) in the third round, Frisco (10-7) in the regional final and Corpus Christi Flour Bluff (10-9) in Wednesday’s state semifinal.
And in Thursday’s state championship, Centennial faced an Abilene Wylie team that was ranked No. 1 in the state in 5A heading into the playoffs. Centennial responded by taking a 4-3 lead after the seven doubles matches to start the championship round, and when the singles matches got rolling, it was clear that Centennial was locked in on its goal.
One by one, the Centennial players walked off the court yelling “Remember the …” followed by their teammates responding with “Titans!”
That’s the Centennial tradition after each line of competition that the Titans win. The call and response continued late Thursday morning, and by shortly after noon, it was clear Centennial was going to win a fourth straight title. The Titans clinched the team championship with five singles matches still being played.
The players from those matches left their courts in celebration, joining their teammates for chants of “1-2-3-4” before the awards ceremony. It was a combination of joy and relief, especially after the tense matches the Titans had played in the playoffs, including the 10-9 win a day earlier in the state semifinal.
In that semifinal battle against Flour Bluff, the team matchup was tied 9-9 and all eyes were on the last two players on the court. One of them was Centennial freshman Karthika Pendli in the No. 6 girls singles spot, who was playing a 10-point third-set tiebreaker that would decide whether the Titans would advance to the state championship.
Pendli trailed 4-1 in the tiebreaker before battling back to win 10-8.
The freshman was named 5A Girls MVP and Centennial senior Raj Sheth was named the 5A Boys MVP. The two players were emblematic of the construction of the 2026 team – a combination of experienced and younger players who shared a toughness and competitiveness that the program tries to develop each year.
“This road was harder. This was the year that we didn’t start as a heavy favorite, and I don’t even know if we were the favorite,” Fair said. “But the toughness of these players. The grittiness. I just admire how they handle pressure.”
Congratulations, Titans!
2026 Centennial Titans
5A State Team Tennis Champions
Players
Siri Aravapalli
Elizabeth Berg
Vibha Bat
Vedansh Chavan
Aryan Dey
Josephine Fair
Viraj Gate
Ishan Huria
Ananya Kala
Shreema Kandula
Shivam Patel
Karthika Pendli
Ishita Ratnakaram
Veda Reddy
Vinay Sethi
Raj Sheth
Rohan Sheth
Mithilesh Sriramprabu
Vedant Tripathi
Katherine Wu
Ishaan Yedavalli
Manager: Carter Rogers
Coaches: Douglas Fair, Carlos Aguilar
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