No. 1 doubles teams knotted at 7-7, Jean VerPlanck thought her Bow girls tennis squad had a strong chance to knock off once-beaten Portsmouth in the Class I quarterfinals on May 21.

Then the skies opened and the rain fell. When the tourney’s No. 2 and No. 7 seeds resumed play the next day, VerPlanck said any Bow advantage evaporated with the moisture on the courts.

“We totally had momentum yesterday, there’s no doubt about it,” said the coach. “I mean, you have your singles matches, and you come off and you’re warmed up and you go into your doubles … When you come in at 7-7 in your match, it’s do or die, and we were on the wrong side of that.”

Prior to the postponement, junior Kate Torres, Bow’s No. 1 singles player, had knocked off Portsmouth’s Taylor Barnes, 8- 4, and No. 2 Mariah Leven was edged in her match, 8-6. No. 3 Jordan Card lost, 8-3, and No. 4 Katie Foy earned an 8-2 victory.

Bow’s No. 5, Morgan Seney, was up, 5-4, and No. 6 Emma Mulvaney was entrenched in a 3-3 battle.

The doubles unit of Torres and Leven had come back from a three-game deficit to tie their match.

“I told them to just relax and have fun, and they were doing that and had really started getting more confidence,” said Ver- Planck. “Then today, it’s tough to come out not really feeling warmed up, but we kept saying, ‘Hey, they’re the ones with the pressure, not us.’ We were the underdogs.”

Still, VerPlanck gave the Lady Clippers credit for holding off her talented No. 1 tandem, 9- 7, and Mulvaney in singles, 8-4. Though Seney won, 8-4, the two ties-turned-losses put Bow in a position where it had to win both remaining doubles matches to take the contest.

Card and Foy lost, 8-4, and Seney and Mulvaney, who were down, 7-2, had their match prematurely ended so the boys could take the court.

“I came in very scared,” said Portsmouth coach Sarah Olsen, whose squad had beaten the Lady Falcons twice by 6-3 margins during the regular season.

“I didn’t sleep a wink last night. I mean, Bow is a very strong team. They’re very well coached, and they have smart players who came in and had figured out a lot of our strategies.”

VerPlanck said as good as her team was, it fell just short of the Class I elite.

Including the playoffs, the locals held nine wins and six losses. Three setbacks came against Portsmouth; twice they fell to 12-2 Bishop Brady, 5-4 and 6-3; and 12-2 St. Thomas beat them, 6-3.

“We needed probably just one more really strong player on our team that may have pushed those (contests) the other way,” said VerPlanck. “But we had a great season. Not all the teams played the tough schedule we played, so I thought the girls did a very good job to get here, and I’m very happy with season we had.”

And the mentor is excited about the future as well. Though the Lady Falcons lose four seniors, including captain Steph Carlson, their No. 7 singles player, they return Torres and Leven, both juniors this season, and Mulvaney, a sophomore.

VerPlanck said she is so confident in her underclassmen that she is even considering splitting Torres and Leven next season.

“That’s crossed my mind, and there could be a change,” she said. “Right now, I’m not sure, but we have a couple girls who didn’t make the top six this year, but they’re taking serious lessons, and if we can see their games pull together maybe we’ll spread the wealth a little bit and see a different lineup for the doubles.”