RallyNorth.net

Thu, Jun 01, 2017 04:00 PM @ Portsmouth

Team	Final
Windham	5
Portsmouth	4

Windham girls tennis stuns Portsmouth to win first state championship

BEDFORD — Portsmouth girls tennis had been a juggernaut, easily defeating all comers during the regular season, and Thursday afternoon the Clippers were heavily favored to cap off their perfect season with a championship victory over a Windham team they had already beaten 8-1.

But the Windham girls had other ideas.

In a shocking upset, Windham played its best tennis of the season at the perfect time to beat Portsmouth 5-4 in Thursday's Division 2 state championship game. It was the first state title in program history, and afterwards even Windham coach Mike Keshigian admitted he didn't see it coming.

"No. I really hoped we could and I had a strong feeling we could give them a fight but I wasn't really expecting it," Keshigian said. "It feels amazing, they definitely worked hard, and you couldn't get any closer than this."

The match went down to the wire, with Windham and Portsmouth splitting the six singles matches 3-3. All of the doubles matches started off slowly, but the turning point came when the second doubles team of Taryn Livingstone and Marina Nysten recovered from an early 2-4 deficit to win their match 8-6. By that point, the first doubles team of Natalie DeByle and Jennifer Thibodeau had pulled ahead, putting the historic title within reach.

DeByle and Thibodeau went on to win the decisive first doubles match 8-5, and the pair also won their singles matches 8-3 at first and second singles respectively. Nysten also won at fourth singles 8-6.

As for how Windham was able to mount such an impressive turnaround after losing to Portsmouth 8-1 earlier in the season, Keshigian said in that meeting the Jaguars were without their third singles player, and DeByle and Thibodeau had off days.

"They knew they had to bring it today," he said.

Windham finishes the season 15-2, while Portsmouth wraps up at 16-1.