The Alvirne High boys tennis team fell to Bedford, 5-2, in the Saturday's Division I State Finals.

DERRY – Alvirne High boys tennis coach Michael Coulter understood the enormity of the task at hand Saturday at Pinkerton Academy.

Bedford High has never lost a state final, going 10 for 10 – seven in Division I, three in Division II — in school history. Alvirne was making its first-ever boys tennis championship match appearance.

“I knew we had our work cut out for us going into this match, but we were ecstatic to even be here,” said Coulter.

“They’re a very, very good team, and they’re deep. They’re solid one all the way through the last guy on the team.

“This has been a phenomenal season for us. We had a couple good matches. We pulled out two ‘W’s’ and I would have liked to finished out the two doubles matches. We’re just ecstatic to be part of this championship match.”

The Broncos pressed Bedford into the doubles but couldn’t pull off the unthinkable, falling 5-2 before the rain forced the cancelation of the top two doubles matches.

Alvirne’s two victories came at first and second singles, thanks to juniors Peyton Meuse and Ashton Meuse.

“I was thinking of the movie ‘Miracle’ … Once we won the first two (singles), I thought it was doable,” said Coulter. “We could sweep three doubles, and then they would have had to make a movie about the Alvirne Broncos.”

Peyton squared off with Bedford No. 1 Nick Bayer and the two got after it with stinging ground strokes. The Bronco broke to a 2-0 lead, then found himself frustrated and down a break at 3-2. That’s when he took over.

Ripping forehands with pinpoint accuracy, he assumed control and would not be broken again, taking over and pulling away for an 8-4 victory.

Ashton simply dominated at No. 2, hardly giving Bulldog Lucas Mack a shot in an 8-2 shellacking.

“Bigtime efforts. The Meuse Brothers are phenomenal players. They’re tennis players,” said Coulter. “They grew up playing the game. They’re super athletes, they play other stuff, too, but they really thrive in the tennis environment, and it showed out there today. They were unbelievable.”

It just wasn’t enough.

The Bulldogs crushed it in Nos. 3-6, surrendering just one game.

Tom Bondarak knocked off Derek Dong, 8-1. Charlie Thomas defeated Bohdan Higley, Jon Rudy dropped Logan Mack and Broady Burke bettered Alex Smith, all by 8-0 scores.

Still, there was life at 4-2 with the doubles on tap. But Rudy and Burke stopped Mack and Ryan Boucher, just as the skies unloaded, 8-0, to give Bedford the championship.

“I know we had a lot of backing. Our fans were here. We had a lot of support. Like I said, I was looking for a miracle. We were out to change the world today,” said Coulter.

“I knew we were a pretty solid team. We got a couple good draws coming in here. I was expecting to have a good season, but these guys played out of their minds. I was very pleasantly surprised.”

While the Meuse boys will be back in 2022, Coulter will need to replace the four seniors in the lineup.

“Those four guys are all athletes, soccer players, basketball players,” said Coulter of Dong, Higley, Mack and Smith. “I put a racket in their hands, tried to tune them up a little bit, but they’re athletes, and they want to play.

“We’re losing bottom four guys on my ladder, but we’ve got a new crew coming in next year, a lot of younger guys, a lot of freshmen, so we have some work cut out for us in the offseason.”