Alvirne's Lindsay Gasdia, right, celebrates with her teammates after the Broncos captured the Division II girls tennis title on Thursday, 5-4 over Portsmouth in Bedford. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

BEDFORD – Lindsay Gasdia and Marissa Murphy, the Alvirne High School girls tennis No. 3 doubles tandem, looked at each other earlier Thursday with a thought.

They remembered the pressure-packed, semifinals-deciding No. 2 doubles win by fellow Broncos Kenzie Legg and Gabbi Cummins vs. Souhegan the other day.

“We were joking before, ‘What if that happens (to them)?'” Gasdia said. “We never actually thought that it would.”

Guess again. Court No. 3 at the Bedford Town/High School tennis courts yesterday actually became centre court, with all eyes on Gasdia and Murphy as they rallied for the deciding win that gave the Broncos a 5-4 Division II state championship win over Portsmouth.

The pair was down 5-1 to the Clippers’ Harini Subramanian and Hasya Karthik, but bounced back to win five of the next six games, including a marathon game 12, to pull even and eventually get title-clinching 9-7 triumph.

“Honestly, we talk a lot, and we said we just need to be patient and play our game,” Gasdia said. “We beat them before, and they’re great players, and we’re obviously happy with the outcome. But we just needed to be patient and play the way we know how to play.”

“And,” added Murphy, “not let the stress get to us and get into our head.”

Really, Broncos coach Jen Ruigrok had seen this act before the other day. Her 14-3 team did the same thing it did vs. Souhegan, dropping singles Nos. 1 through 3 and then winning Nos. 4, 5 and 6.

Many thought it might come down Legg/Cummins at No. 2 doubles again, but they were done with an 8-2 win and so was the No. 1 team of Avery Baker/Natalie MacSweeney after an 8-2 loss. All knotted at 4.

The only match left? You got it, No. 3 doubles, with all the fanfare.

“Again, they just stick together, they play off each other, if one’s making mistakes the other one takes over,” Ruigrok said. “It’s a lot of pressure, and they felt it. They actually told me I make them nervous and ‘It’s better off if you’re not here.’ So I walked away, then came back and it was tied up.

“They played good under pressure. I could never do that.”

Ruigrok noted that the one of the reasons for the turnaround was better net play, and her Portsmouth counterpart agreed.

“Kudos first of all for my girls for jumping out to that lead, because they had been beaten by them pretty handily during the regular season,” Portsmouth coach Wendy Poutre said. “They did mostly what they had to do, but Alvirne kind of stepped it up a bit and became alive at the net a lot. If we were on defense, we got in trouble.”

Portsmouth’s singles wins were by Sophia Jundi 8-2 over MacSweeney, Elisabeth Drakatos at No. 2, 8-0 over Baker, and Caylie Cook 8-5 at No. 3 over Cummins.

But Legg bested Molly Mikkonen 8-2 at No. 4, about the same time Gasdia was finishing up an 8-2 win over Subramanian and Bronco Emma Coppi doing the same 8-3 over Karthik.

“They’re tough,” Ruigrok said. “My 4, 5 and 6 have been pretty good all season. We haven’t lost much there all season and that’s what’s really kept us in most matches all season.”

Again, doubles is where the wins are.

“Exactly,” Ruigrok, the Broncos coach for the last nine years, said. “We practiced doubles all the time. That was my thing in tennis, my specialty.”

This is the first team title for an Alvirne team since softball won the second of back-to-back titles in 2012. It’s the girls tennis team’s first championship since it won the Class L crown in 1998.

Alvirne was placed in Division II this year and the team opted not to petition up, and found the competition was just as tough. A title was the last thing on many players’ minds.

“Fun girls, they like to play tennis, so that’s what makes it fun for them,” Ruigrok said, noting that down the stretch of the season against the tougher competition she had an inkling.

“I think the end of the season when we saw some of the top teams and we were 5-4,” she said. “So it was, ‘We might be able to do this.'”

After the marathon 12th game in which Portsmouth, serving, squandered four add-ins to try to grab a two-game lead, the Broncos held serve to go up 7-6. The Clippers did the same to even things at 7, then Alvirne held serve and then broke serve again for the title and players began rushing onto the court in celebration.

“It’s awesome,” Ruigrok said. “So exciting I’m starting to cry. They’re such a nice group of girls and they really deserve it.”

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