“I’ve been here for about 23 years. At some point, you gotta think it might not ever happen, but it happened with the greatest group I’ve ever had,” Coach Doug Addington said.

What happened was the varsity girls tennis team won the school’s first-ever WPIAL team championship Wednesday night.

And that win came in the form of a 5-0 sweep of North Allegheny at Washington & Jefferson College.

“Winning the first WPIAL title I think is a testament to all of our hard word over the years,” Emma Smith said. “The whole starting lineup has been playing together since were were in elementary school, and we had always talked about the possibility of this, and to see it actually happen is amazing.”

The doubles team of Emma Smith and Mackenzie Smock got the first points on the board for the Hawks after defeating Audrey Zheng and Tia Soussou, 6-1, 6-3.

Katie Peterson got the second win for the Hawks by defeating Peyton Mauser, 6-2, 6-2.

Momentum was in the Hawks’ favor, and Cami Fisher sealed the deal for the Hawks with her win over Sara Fernandez, 6-4, 6-0.

Julia Gobbie and Cassie Sierka were in the middle of their match with Siya Jain and Rebecca Murphy when Fisher won. Despite the pleasant distraction, they stayed focused and won 7-6(3), 6-4.

Lily Sierka was also playing for the Hawks when Fisher won.

“It was a big relief,” Sierka said. “I was still playing and the match was super close, so it was nice to know that I didn’t have to win.”

She closed out the match for the Hawks with a 6-7(6), 2-1 injury def. victory over Laeticia Wessel.

“When we first realized we won the WPIAL title, everyone was just in immediate celebration mode. We were all hugging each other and celebrating because it was crazy that we actually made it so far and won the WPIAL title,” Smith said.

The girls will advance to the PIAA playoffs with the first round scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24.