The night belonged to the No. 2 seed at the Rochester Civic Center.

Rochester Mayo avenged a 25-point loss to Farmington in December, with a 49-35 victory in the Section 1 championship.

The Spartans (21-6) advance to the state tournament for the ninth time, and first since 2006.

“There are so many similarities between this team and the team I took to state in 2006,” Spartans coach Angela Meister said. “We were the No. 2 seed that year, too. We beat Owatonna by one point in the semifinals, and Northfield in the championship.”

The Spartans scored the first seven points, and never trailed in the win. It hardly resembled their 32-31 semifinal victory over Owatonna, when they trailed by 18 points in the second half, and only had nine points with 12 minutes remaining.

“That’s the one game I will always remember,” Spartans junior Lauren Ulsh said. She finished with a game-high 16 points. “That game gave us confidence, even with how bad we played.”

Top-seeded Farmington (23-4) was seeking its first section title in school history.