Badminton kicked off the battle for team titles in the state in 2016-2017 on Thursday night and the sport came up with a couple of doozies.

Top-seed Xavier Prep, outlasted No. 2 Perry to win its fourth consecutive team title and fifth of six this decade as the Gators took a 5-3 triumph over the Pumas to claim the D-I championship.

Just as exciting was the D-II match between No. 2 Sunnyslope and No. 1 Mesquite. Sunnyslope prevailed winning the No. 3 doubles match in three sets to post a 5-4 win for its first title in the sport since 2009. All the action took place at Sunnyslope High School.

Xavier, with Blue Dads in tow (fathers of  players who painted their heads blue for the championship occasion) and Perry split the six singles matches, four of which went three sets. That set up doubles to decide the outcome and Xavier's two doubles teams that placed at state clinched the title for the Gators.

Kiana Valentova-MacDonald and Emily Woodrow, third-place finishers in doubles this past weekend, swept Perry's Jillian Lagasca and Katie Cross, 15-3, 15-13 for the fifth and decisive point. Tatum Clarke and Annie Kamps, the doubles champs last weekend, won 2-0 over Dominque Garcia and Tori Albin for a 4-3 lead.

Clarke and Woodrow, the lone Xavier players with championship match experience, also won their singles matches to help key the victory.

"We had a couple players who have been here before and the others were new and came out nervous," Xavier coach Sue Contreras said. "Once we got to doubles the nerves went away and the ones who struggled a little early regrouped and played well in doubles.

"You hope that a championship match goes down like this. Perry is so good and they made us earn it. It was a great match."

Perry was in the title match two years ago against Xavier and lost, 5-0. The Pumas were better able to handle their second go-round, just not to the ultimate.

"We were just glad to be here last time," Perry coach Lerina Johnson said. "Tonight we came out and believed we could win. It's the way a championship match should go. We just made one too many errors, but the girls played their butts off. They should stay proud with what they've done.

For Sunnyslope it was a second consecutive long night, but as it was Wednesday in its 5-4 win over Chaparral, worth the trouble.

Sunnyslope lost the first two singles matches in lopsided fashion with Mesquite's singles champ Natalie Weber and Rebecca Farias, part of the doubles runner-up team, prevailing.

But Sunnyslope, which lost a regular-season match to Mesquite, 7-2, won the other four singles matches to notch a 4-2 lead. Mesquite came to life sweeping the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches. Weber and Cassie Clemens and Farias and Justine Gardner were the winning duos in those matches that tied it at 4-4.

That left the No. 3 doubles teams to sway the outcome. Sunnyslope's Jenna Drotzman and Emma Johnson squared off against Mesquite's Meghan Marshall and Catherine Potzler. The teams split the first two sets and Marshall and Potzler seemed to have the upper hand with a 8-4 lead. That changed quickly and decisively as Drotzman-Johnson reeled off an 11-0 run to clinch the title.

"We just got the momentum going our way," Sunnyslope coach Sarah Schlesinger said. "You could see it the way they (Drotzman-Johnson) were jumping around with excitement. To win like this makes it all the more special."

Mesquite coach Mark Hanna thought the tide had turned after his team evened the match and with his No. 3 doubles on a roll midway through the decisive set.

"We did everything we needed to do to get back in the match," Hanna said. "We just fell a few points short. I think our girls lost confidence in that last match once they team got two or three points ahead. Just kind of ran out of gas at the end."