Nashua South's Nikhi Matta fires a return during Friday's Battle of the Bridge match vs. Nashua North at the North courts. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They were on a collision course all week, set to finish not only the regular season but the Battle of the Bridge on Friday.

And all week long, it looked like the Nashua High School North and South girls tennis teams’ match yesterday would be for the 11th and final spot in the Division I tourney.

As if that Bridge wasn’t enough to play for, right?

Panthers coach Karen Cullison didn’t tell her players on purpose until right before they were ready to go, and they reacted well, topping North 7-2 in a match that was really closer than the final score indicated.

In fact, North (5-8) was just a couple of games away from going into doubles with a 3-3 singles split. But South’s Riya Shroff, down 6-5 to North’s Mari Cajigas, ralled to win three straight games and pull out an 8-6 win at No. 2 singles. That gave the Panthers a 4-2 lead going into doubles, which meant they’d have to win just one of the next three matches to head to the playoffs.

“It feels good, our season is still going on,” Shriva said. “I think the biggest thing is just stay out of your head. When I was down, it was ‘Just get this point, just win this one point.’ And keep saying that in my head.”

Shroff usually plays at No. 3 as both teams had to make lineup adjustments because of prom and family commitments, as this match wasn’t on the original schedule, postponed twice. But she was equal to the task.

“Fabulous,” Cullison said, her team finishing the regular season at 6-8. “I’m really, really proud of her. … It was the turning point.

“What really solidified it today was the confidence the girls got. I tell them all the time, tennis is a mental game.”

And the thinking by most was this match was going to make someone’s season and keep it going.

“We knew it was going to come down this,” North co-coach Jothan Massey said. “We were hoping it would be a different (result). …We were trying to focus on being aggressive, and doing what we needed to do what was good for us.

“That (No.2 singles) was a really close match and I think if it were played again it might be a different outcome. It was really, really close, both were really close skillwise.”

Nashua North’s Gabi Desjardins keeps her focus on a forehand shot during Friday’s regular season finale vs. rival Nashua South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But the Titans were left needing to sweep doubles to keep their season alive and instead were swept. Their wins yesterday came at No. 3 singles where Aleena Reth topped South’s Gowri Akkineni, 8-3, and at No. 5 where Addie Bueno bested Bhavani Lakshminarayanan, 8-5.

South’s Krina Dani beat Gabi Desjardins 8-3 at No. 1, Nikki Matta bested Louise Lorillard 8-0 at No. 4, and Soha Patel defeated Brigette Bennett 8-3 at No. 6.

And doubles went quickly. Dani/Shroff beat Desjardins/Cajigas 8-2 at No. 1, Akkineni/Matta downed Reth/Lorillard 8-4, but the actual first match to finish with the clinching point was at No. 3 where Lakshminarayanan/Patel beat Bueno/Bennett 8-3.

“With that win (by Shroff), you could just see the level of confidence, the shoulders go back and ‘OK, we’ve got this now,'” Cullison said. “They do well in doubles for the most part.”

Now the Panthers wait to see who they will face in Tuesday’s preliminary round. Unofficially, it looks like they could be at Dover (9-5), which might be No. 6 after losing a head-to-head tiebreaker with fellow 9-5 Salem. The Panthers lost 9-0 to the Green Wave just this past Monday. But that’s unofficial.

But they’re in, and North’s Massey and fellow coach Heidi Paris will look forward to next spring after their inaugural season on the job.

“They graduated a lot of seniors last year so it was going to be a growing year,” Massey said. “We want to grow a program that we can kind of keep feeding; we’re hoping that’s what we did this year and a lot of girls come back and make progress from what we saw this season.”

Nashua South’s Ryha Shroff, right, leads a happy group of Panthers after their tourney-clinching win over Nashua North on Firday. (Telegraph photo byTOM KING)