NORTH KINGSTOWN — The Mt. Hope High School girls’ tennis team saw its season come to an end Friday afternoon when it bowed to Coventry 4-1 in a Division-Four semifinal playoff match in North Kingstown.

The Huskies, who lost to the Four-North champion Oakers 7-0 during the regular season, played better all around but still couldn’t hand 16-1 Coventry its second setback of the season.

“With a little bit of luck we might have played that seventh point out,” said Mt. Hope coach Wayne Turner. “But we knew we needed to fire on all cylinders. We had to come out with a lot of intensity from the beginning.

“We fell a little bit short of our goal but nonetheless, we improved over our last match with Coventry. The girls played harder and the scores were better. I’m very proud of the girls.”

Kathleen Coccio earned the lone Mt. Hope point with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Cassandra Thibeault at second singles. Coccio had lost to Thibeault during the regular season. But by the time Coccio won her match, the Huskies already had lost three others.

That left Abigail Mylnek still playing at third singles and Taylor Clark and Carolyn St. Vincent still playing at second doubles. The third doubles team of Holly Whipp and Heather Morreo had just gotten on the court and owned a 3-0 edge in the opening set.

Mylnek dropped her first set 7-5 and was down 5-4 in the second set. Mt. Hope’s second tandem lost the first set 6-4 and also was down 5-4 in the second set. Then Coventry’s Erica Thayer and Julia Chretien won the tenth game of the second set at second doubles to finish off Clark and St. Vincent and put an end to the match.

“Abigail lost the first set but was up at one point and could have potentially won the second set,” Turner said. “She could have gotten it into a three-set match. Cody and Taylor at second doubles had the same opportunity. So when I said we needed a little bit of luck, that’s what I meant.

“We needed to find ways to win those second sets and get them into third sets and let the emotion of the opportunity to win capture us.”

Coventry’s No. 1 doubles team of Kate Donovan and Mackenize Richter were the first ones off the court after recording a 6-1, 6-2 win over Jessica DeLemos and Courtney Ferreira. Sarah Karn’s 6-0, 6-3 victory over Katey Amaral at fourth singles gave the Oakers a 2-0 edge. Then Haylee McHale dispatched Corianna Mascena 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles to pull the Oakers to within a point of clinching the match.

“I thought I could beat her because last time I played her I had a cold and I couldn’t breathe very well,” Mascena said. “She had me running a lot today. I just couldn’t get there fast enough.”

Coccio then walked off the court a winner at second singles leaving three matches going and Mt. Hope needing wins in all of them to pull off the upset. But Coventry quickly put an end to that notion and to Mt. Hope’s still stellar season.

“We wanted to get this far because we’ve never made it past the first round of the playoffs,” Mascena said. “We did this year so we’re excited.

“A lot of the graduating seniors last year didn’t think we were going to be that strong this year. But we came back. We showed them. It was nice.”

Mt. Hope finished in second place in Division Four-East with a 13-3 record. The Huskies then dispatched Warwick in a quarterfinal-round match and ended the season with a 14-4 overall record. Amaral, Coccio, DeLemos, Mascena and Morreo all played their final girls’ tennis match for Mt. Hope.

“I think the individual accomplishments of the five seniors leading the underclassmen has been great,” Turner said. “We had three very, very good wins, two over Middletown, one over Cranston East. I have a lot of respect for those programs.

“I thought the way we defeated Warwick Vets in straight-set matches was another way of just seeing how far we’ve come over the course of the season. There’s no doubt in my mind they’ve improved. They’ve overachieved. They’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”