Hollis Brookline's Delaney Weimer hits a return during her No. 1 singles match in the Cavaliers loss to Windham in the Division II finals on Friday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

BEDFORD – If someone had told Dalia Paradie when the season started that the Hollis Brookline High School girls tennis team she was preparing to coach for the first time would end up in the Division II finals, she wouldn’t have believed you.

“First year coaching, I would have thought impossible,” Paradie said after Windham beat the Cavaliers 9-0 in the title match Friday at the Bedford High School/town tennis courts. “I inherited the best team ever. … integrity, I can’t say enough. They fought, they were coachable, they had great spirit.”

This was the Cavalier program’s first trip to the finals since 2002, while for the 16-0 Jaguars, it was old hat. They won in 2017 and lost in 2018. But Friday they were in complete control, which wasn’t the case when they had to rally to beat old finals rival Portsmouth in the semis.

“We have a lot of strong players,” Windham coach Michael Keshigian said. “We had a huge match against Portsmouth when we were down with our second and third doubles. … the girls never give up, always keep trying. It’s phenomenal.”

The match of the day – and the last singles match on the court – was Windham’s Jess Thibodeau’s 8-6 win over Delaney Weimer at No. 1 singles. That’s because Weimer was down 7-2 before closing to within 7-6 before Thibodeau, on serve, closed it out.

“Whenever I lose a point, I just try to let it go and keep pushing, that really helped today,” Weimer said. “Jess is a great player and she had an awesome match.

“We were just so excited to have the opportunity to play this year because there’s so many other teams that haven’t gotten the opportunity. All we really focused on at first was just having fun and enjoying our last season together. Then we started to win and we said, ‘OK, we got this.'”

They almost did, finishing 10-1.

“It just shows her determination,” Paradie said of Weimer’s close match. “She almost took it.”

The others, however, weren’t quite as close. At No. 2, Windham’s Carolyn Wang beat HB’s Lia Eisenberg 8-2; Cameron Livingstone topped Keiara Swart 8-4, Emma Turner and Olivia Chik won by the same score over Samantha Morse and Natasha Ferro at Nos. 4 and 5; and Sydney Szypszak triumphed over Hannah Escandon, 8-2.

Doubles was the same – one close one, two not so much. The No. 3 team of Ferro and Escandon fell just 8-6 to Windham’s Chik/Szypszak tandem.

Meanwhile, at No. 1 doubles, Weimer and Eisenberg fell to Thibodeau/Turner 8-3 and Swart/Morse lost to Wang/Livingstone by the same margin.

Paradie knew the Cavs would be underdogs, but was hoping things might change.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” she said. “But I was hopeful because I always believe you can beat a stronger team. But sometimes they’re just better than you. That’s OK; in tennis, it’s kind of like that. I think every one, one through six, played great today.”

Keshigian wasn’t sure what to expect as he hadn’t seen the Cavs this year.

“I knew they’d give us a fight, they’re a very consistent team,” Keshigian said. “But we’re always going to dig, always going to try, we never count these girls out. … But obviously they (HB) deserved to be here, they played a lot of great tennis, won a lot of great matches.”

Paradie certainly would agree.

“They’re all fighters,” she said. “They fought, they gave it their best, and that’s all I can ask. Being here is an achievement in its own … To me, it’s a win.”