For the first time since Menlo won four consecutive CIF-Nor Cal titles from 1998-2001, the girls’ tennis team captured the regional title with a 5-2 win over St. Francis-Mountain View on Thursday at Fremont Tennis Center.

It was the third time the teams have met: Once an early-season match the Lancers won, the next in the CCS Championships, which Menlo won 5-2.    

“This is definitely the best they have played all year,” Menlo coach Bill Shine said. “They weren’t rusty (with all the weather breaks), they kept focused and stayed completely engaged. I’m just so proud of them.”   

In a match rescheduled and moved due to weather, top seed Menlo defeated No. 5 Miramonte of Orinda 6-1 in the semifinal. No. 3 St. Francis defeated No.2 Monte Vista 5-2 to advance.

Against the Lancers, the Knights went ahead 2-1 when the doubles teams of Mia McConnell and Sadie Bronk (No. 1) and Schuyler Tilney-Volk and Melissa Tran (No. 2) came off the courts with victories. Then, within a 30-second span, the No. 3 doubles Kaitlin Hao and Kathryn Wilson triumphed and once again, Elizabeth Yao clinched the victory at No.1 singles, and Georgia Anderson added a victory at No. 3 singles.   

Menlo now has a pair of tennis NorCal titles in the same calendar year as the boys’ team, which Shine also coaches, won their sixth consecutive NorCal championship in May.

“After coming so close last year (finalist) and seeing the boys win, they were so excited to bring the trophy back home,” he said. 

The doubles teams swept as they did in the CCS Championships - Tilney-Volk and Tran went through the season undefeated - and the doubles were crucial to the title victories. “This is what wins championships,” said Shine also credits the Kevin Conner-factor. Assistant coach Conner, who is also the frosh-soph boys’ soccer coach, works with the girls’ doubles teams.  

Bronk and Elizabeth Yao are the only seniors on a team loaded with underclassmen yet this team ended a decade-long hiatus. 

“That is the biggest factor,” Shine said about the team’s unified chemistry.”There were a lot of new girls on the team, and we were trying to figure out how they were going to mesh.”

It never was even an issue. The team sailed through the regular season with a perfect 10-0 mark, went in to CCS seeded No. 5, then won its first section title since 2005 before storming through NorCals. 

“This team has high expectations, and they all really want to win for themselves and each other,” Shine said. “The chemistry was so good. We weren’t (seeded) as good on paper, but you don’t win championships on paper.  This is what team is about.”