The girls’ tennis team. / Photo by: Marcus Casey

Girls’ tennis wins its first tourney match ever.

A few minutes into the Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ tennis team’s Division 1 South preliminary round match against Bishop Feehan, athletic director Bob Rodgers took off.

He hurried up the hill to the school to paw through some yearbooks in the library. He had a feeling the girls were on the precipice of something special. They were.

Roughly two hours later, the 15th-seeded Panthers secured the girls’ tennis program’s first tournament win on record when the first doubles team of Kyla Faghan and Rylie Harlow notched a 6-3 victory to push W-H ahead 3-0 en route to a 4-1 triumph over Bishop Feehan on Monday.

“It feels great,” said W-H head coach Sue Sookiasian. “These girls work so hard — tirelessly. It was a belief that they could do it. They put in the time, the practice and they have the skills.”

The Panthers’ second doubles team, consisting of Chloe Wilson and Divya Kumar, put them on the board early, making quick work of their opponents in two sets, 6-4 and 6-1.

Abby Pulling was the second point with 6-2 and 6-1 victories in second singles.

Faghan and Harlow followed with set wins of 6-4 and 6-3 wins.

After Lexi Connolly was upended in first singles, 2-6 and 5-7, Julia Benvie capped the match with a win in a tiebreaker.

“They fight as a team,” Sookiasian said. “A lot of times tennis is characterized as an individual sport, it’s not. It’s all about No. 1 to No. 18.”