LEWISTON — You don’t win 12 state championships and 19 regional titles as a girls’ tennis coach without succeeding in a few specific, key areas.

Making the game fun. Finding and polishing diamonds in the rough. Serving as a second mother or grandmother figure.

Anita Murphy, 72 years young and in her 37th year running the show on the Lewiston High School courts, found those magic formulas yet again this spring.

The Blue Devils will host defending champion Falmouth at 12:45 p.m. Saturday for the Class A title.

“They’re nice kids,” Murphy said. “Thirty-seven years and I can count on one hand the ones that have been a problem. I’ve just been so fortunate.”

Lewiston’s 3-2 victory Wednesday over Brunswick made it an even 20 regional championships, in all. The Blue Devils won their first in 1977, two years before Murphy took over.

Girls continue to flock to the recreational program for a chance to play on her team, or they make the transition from other sports at a time in their life when many kids shy away from learning something new that would require hard work.

This year’s example is sophomore Chloe Morin, who could count the number of times she had picked up a tennis racket on the fingers that were holding it when she showed up for tryouts a year ago.

“I never played before high school,” Morin said. “I play hockey. We won states, and it’s funny, because Saturday is against Falmouth, and that’s who we played.”

Morin moved up to varsity this season and found her comfort zone as partner to classmate Lizzy Michaud at second doubles.

It sounds like an inconspicuous place, but the tandem’s 6-1, 6-3 win Wednesday was the verdict that helped the Devils advance to states. Michaud and Morin lost to the same Brunswick duo twice in the previous two weeks.

“We’ve been close for a long time, so it’s easy for us to be doubles partners,” Michaud said. “We’ve been best friends since fourth grade.”

Experience wasn’t necessary to make a contribution for the Devils this season.

Lewiston carried two seniors, captains Kyleigh Letourneau and Claudia Dionne, on its roster. Letourneau has lost only one match at No. 2 singles, while the No. 1 doubles combination of Dionne and Maddie LeBlond went undefeated during the regular season.

Murphy hugged Letourneau after her straight-sets victory Wednesday over Cassie Ridge of Brunswick and asked her, “Remember what I told you at the beginning of the season you were going to be for me?”

“A doubles player?” Letourneau quipped.

“My ace in the hole,” the coach corrected, shaking her head.

There was no danger of anyone playing a trump card. Letourneau, who will attend Old Dominion University in Virginia, has been entrenched as a starter in singles since sophomore year.

“But my whole team has improved from season to season,” she said.

Letourneau will leave Maine, likely for good, early next week. Her family has already moved to Virginia Beach in anticipation of her next step in life.

“She’s just a sweetheart of a girl,” Murphy said. “Everybody calls me ‘Mem,’ but she still calls me ‘Coach.’ I think that’s out of respect to her own grandmother who comes and watches her play. She doesn’t want her to hear her calling anybody else that.”

The team’s grit, resilience and refusal to quit mirror their coach.

No. 3 singles player Alanna Taylor overcame a love-40 deficit in her first game at the Eastern Maine finals, then bounced back from two breaks of her service to win a second-set tiebreaker and close out a victory.

Michaud and Morin rallied from love-40 to win three separate games in their match. And No. 1 singles player Maddi Roy battled through 2 hours and 20 minutes in the heat, even after she knew Lewiston had clinched its title, before falling 5-7 in the third set.

“That’s one thing I had to learn was control your mental game,” Morin said. “Even if we made a mistake, we were like, shake it off. Even though it still bothers me. Sometimes I look over and see Mem hiding behind her clipboard.”

Lewiston last won the state title in 2011. Letourneau and Dionne avoided becoming the first Blue Devils’ seniors since 1994 to go through their career without getting to a final.

“I thought we were a pretty good team (in preseason) during our ladder matches,” Michaud said. “We were all pretty equal players, so I thought, ‘Oh, my Gosh, this is going to be a good season.’ After we had our first two matches and both doubles teams won 6-0, 6-0, we were like, wow, we can do whatever we put our mind to.”

Murphy had a familiar volunteer assistant, former Lewiston boys’ coach Ron Chicoine, at the regional championship.

He has counseled his mom to continue coaching as long as she’s enjoying herself and has the energy.

“Sometimes I wonder if I’m being fair to them,” she said.

The results answer that question.

koakes@sunjournal.com