PORTLAND – They had no clue.

A small crowd of anxious parents, relatives and teammates gathered behind the netting beside Court 6 at The Racket and Fitness Center in Portland, watching as Lewiston’s first doubles tandem of Julia Bergeron and Emilie Cloutier returned shot after shot to McAuley’s Mikayla Call and Erin Woodbury.

“We didn’t know until Mrs. (Lewiston coach Anita) Murphy came up to us and said, ‘Well guys, you just got the championship point.’ I couldn’t believe it. We started flipping out.”

Bergeron and Cloutier capped an early Lewiston charge with their 6-3, 6-0 win, and their victory lifted the Blue Devils to their second consecutive girls’ state tennis title with a 4-1 team victory over former rival McAuley.

“We used to be great rivals in the SMAA every year,” McAuley coach Joe Kilmartin told a gathered crowd at the awards ceremony.

“We’re just glad, in a way, they’re gone. It gives us all a chance to get here now, too,” he joked.

Bergeron’s twin, Audrey, and her doubles partner Emily Parent, got things rolling early for the Blue Devils, taking a quick 6-0, 6-2 win over Anna Gillis and Maddie Pizey.

“I was nervous,” Murphy admitted. “I didn’t want to let onto the girls that I was, but we hadn’t seen McAuley play, so it was playing someone we knew nothing about.”

Murphy’s players weren’t as worried, though.

“We try not to over-think it,” Cloutier said. “They put their shoes on the same way we do, they do everything the same, so we weren’t that worried about it.”

Third singles player Ashley McWhorter, a senior who sang at graduation on Friday and attended project graduation into Saturday morning, gave the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-1 win over fellow Lewiston product Jenna Beaulieu.

Beaulieu, whose father played No. 2 singles for Lewiston behind current boys’ coach and Murphy’s son, Ron Chicoine, followed her sister, Christie, to McAuley.

“I knew if we were going to have a chance, I needed Jenna to come through,” Kilmartin said. “It’s ironic that we needed help from a Lewiston-ite to help us beat Lewiston.”

Moments later, Julia Bergeron and Cloutier clinched.

In a hard-fought match at No. 2 singles, McAuley picked up its lone point when Sarah Delaney upended senior Katelyn Ouellette, 6-4, 6-4.

Chantalle Lavertu fought through a 6-2, 6-1 win over Anna Zieba to close out the matches.