Mount Lourdes tennis team made local tennis history this week by winning the Ulster Schools Cup. The team comprised of five members, team captain Laura Griffin, Sarah Cousins, Claire Reihill, Hannah Cousins and Eimear Smyth. The girls proved to be a formidable team and progressed through the league stage without losing a single match in any of their rounds. Each round consists of four singles matches and two doubles. Team captain Laura Griffin was in fine form, and didn't lose a single game in any of her singles matches in this stage. Dearbhla Dillon also played for the team in this stage and added a singles and doubles win to help the team through to the final stages.

As the clear winners of their section Mount Lourdes were set for a quarter-final play-off against Strathearn. The girls won their meeting comfortably, 5 matches to 1. Claire Reihill had to concede her singles match to attend an exam, once again Laura won her singles without the loss of a game.

The semifinal was against Belfast High. Sarah Cousins played the first singles against the talented number 1 Katrin Ileva. Sarah was in top form and won the match an impressive 6/2 6/2, Laura once again won her singles 6/0 6/0. The girls won the round 6 matches to 0.

Now the girls were through to a final encounter against Sullivan Upper. The match was played at Portadown. The doubles were played first and Claire and Eimear won the second doubles in straight sets. Laura and Sarah took the first set in their match which would prove to be crucial, but lost concentration in the second and despite a fight back in the third they couldn't find their form and lost 2 sets to 1.

As the girls started the singles matches they were overall, one set ahead from the doubles matches. This meant that if two of the girls won their singles in straight sets then they would be the overall winners. Sarah and Laura couldn't quite pick up their form after their doubles match and Laura went a set down in the second singles followed by Sarah in a close first set encounter against Katherine Hill in the first singles. The news was better on the third and fourth court with Eimear Smyth taking her first set 6/0, Claire Reihill quickly followed suit taking the first set 6/3. Eimear quickly closed out her singles match winning it in a very convincing 6/0 6/1.

All the girls needed now was for Claire to win the second set and the cup was theirs. Claire did not disappoint as she won in straight sets 6/3 6/3. Despite Sarah and Laura losing their singles a delighted team had done enough to take the Ulster Schools Cup title. This is the first time that a girls tennis team from Fermanagh has won the Ulster Cup. Mount Lourdes Grammar School and the Enniskillen tennis club where all the girls are members are delighted to have a team of such talented tennis players represent them.