Bishop Guertin's Jaclyn Kriscunas keeps her eyes on the ball before hitting a return during Thursday's Division I quarterfinal match vs.Dover in Nashua. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Break up the Cardinals.

Other than the unbeaten reigning Division II girls tennis champions Souhegan, the Bishop Guertin High School girls racket squad is the hottest team in the area.

Thursday Guertin won its 13th straight match, beating No. 6 Dover 7-2 in the Division I quarterfinals, and that puts the Cards in the semifinals for the first time in the last few years, at No. 2 Derryfield on Monday.

“We’re really excited,” Cards senior Lydia Miller said. “Everyone has been pulling their weight and the fact we’ve made it this far just proves how hard we’ve worked.”

“We just keep going forward making shots,” BG coach Marcel Gamache said. “If you miss, keep doing it again.”

The Cards have become tennis savvy. They’ve survived not one but two 10-day layoffs this spring,and had beaten Dover just over two weeks ago 8-1, but were thrown a curve at the start of Thursday’s match.

“They came out today differently,” Gamache said of the 10-6 Green Wave. “They came out hitting drop shots and stuff. Our girls saw it, and we said, ‘When you get that serve in, be ready for what’s coming over, and they were there. Georgie had five or six drop shots (hit to her) and she hit them for winners.

“It was amazing. I’m very proud of this team.”

“What we came to realize was the best chance for us was to give them what I call junk…The girls on this BG team are so consistent, it’s hard to beat a consistent rallier,” Dover coach Logan Sherwood said. “So instead it’s a lob, come in, drop shot, hard shot deep. … I’m incredibly proud of the hard work of this entire team.”

With that new strategy in mind, Dover’s Paige Wilson managed to beat BG’s No. 1 Anna Perrott, a freshman, but the Cards responded by taking the next five matches to wrap it up even before doubles.

Georgie Howell topped Kimberly Tarr 8-5 at No. 2, as did Jaclyn Kriscunas over Jane Mathews at No. 3. Lydia Miller defeated Siena Dambrosio at No. 4, 8-3; Dayan Cottito topped Lily Mozzoni 8-2 at No. 5 and Ainsley Flood bested Dover’s Sara Pellenz 8-2 at No.6.

Both teams agreed to play doubles with Dover’s only other win coming 8-5 with Wilson/D’ambrosio beating Perrott/Kriscunas 8-5, the last match of the day. Prior to that BG’s No. 2 team of Howell/Miller beat Tarr/Jane Andrews and Cottito/Flood triumphed over Mozzoni/Pellenz both by an 8-1 score.

“I think both programs are incredibly deep,” Sherwood said. “In this league, if you can have Nos. 4, 5 and 6 be interchangeable, it’s a huge advantage. So yeah, their 4, 5 and 6 are incredibly strong players. Credit to them. They played phenomenal, played a great match.”

They’ve done that for nearly two months. Gamache knew they’d be good because he had a hard time figuring out his lineup because the abilities were all just about equal. Then the Cards faced the iron right away, falling to both Bedford and Derryfield 6-3 to start the season.

But not to worry.

“If the girls have confidence, they’re going to play,” Gamache said. “I just wanted to keep them really believing in themselves and just concentrate on just what they can do, just shut out the noise. They’re doing it, and it’s awesome.”

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