Bishop Guertin's Anna Perrott fires a return during her No. 1 singles match in the Division I semifinals vs. Derryfield School in Manchester. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – It looked like it was in the Cards.

The Bishop Guertin High School girls tennis team was primed for a Division I semifinal upset of No.2 Derryfield, especially when the Cardinals were able to split singles with the Cougars.

But, alas, it wasn’t to be. Derryfield is 14-1 for a reason, the hosts captured two of the three doubles matches to advance to Wednesday’s finals vs. Bedford.

Guertin hadn’t lost in nearly two months, riding a 13-match win streak, and when No.4 singles senior Lydia Miller pulled out an 8-6 tiebreaker win (9-8) over Derryfield’s Pola Jankowska, Guertin sent a message. And when No.1 Anna Perrott, who was trounced by the Cougars’ No. 1 Annie Lin early in the season, held Lin off to win the battle of freshmen 8-6, the entire match became a doubles best of three.

“It was super cool,” Cards coach Marcel Gamache said. “But they were really attacking our girls at the net (in doubles). Just flattened it out, spring it right there. Just weren’t ready for it.”

Still, despite the loss, it was a major step forward for the Guertin program.

“I’m super excited for my girls,” Gamache said. “They had a great season, and we actually did better than the first time we played Derryfield.”

That was a 6-3 regular season loss in which the Cardinals took two of three doubles, but that match in early April had already been decided in singles.

Monday was a different story, but Cougars coach Gustavo Moral had confidence.

“I was comfortable,” Moral said with a smile. “I had confidence in the girls that they would do what they had to do. But certainly, BG is a very good team. It showed when we first played them, the first match of the season, and they showed that today. They fought, they were tough. But I knew our girls had it in them to come through.”

And that’s what happened when Derryfield’s No. 1 doubles team of Sofia Koshy and Annie Lin bested BG’s tandem of Annie Perrott/Jaclyn Kriscuinas 8-1, and Jankowska/Nehva Veeranna downed BG’s Georgie Howell/Miller at No. 2 doubles, 8-2. That clinched it. BG’s tandem of Dayana Cottito and Ainsley Flood rallied to win at No. 3 over Sarina Punjabi/Marissa Wu, 9-7, after things had already been decided.

“We came into this game and we were going to fight with fire, with everything we had,” said Miller, who is headed to Syracuse next year. “I think we put up a great fight. Derryfield’s a great team, they’ve been consistently good. But the fact we’ve been able to push like this, I don’t think that’s ever going to leave…That won’t be the end of that attitude.”

Miller certainly left that attitude when she was down triple match point in the tiebreaker before rallying for BG’s second win. A bit earlier her teammate, Ainsley Flood, had cruised by Derryfield’s Marissa Wu at No. 6.

The Cougars got their singles wins when Veeranna beat Howell at No. 2, 8-2; Koshy downed Kriscuinas 8-2 at No. 3, and Punjabi downed Cottito 8-2 at No. 5.

But the Cards did a loud cheer in meeting after the match was over, clearly enjoying the fact they competed and put pressure on the heavily favored Cougars.

“I’m so happy our girls came back, and we had a second chance at this,” Gamache said. “It’s awesome.”