MANCHESTER — Game, set, match and now undisputed queen of the New Hampshire high school girls' tennis circuit.

Julia Keenan of St. Thomas Aquinas of Dover became the first NHIAA four-time state individual winner after breezing to a 6-0, 6-1 championship round win against Casey Geddes of Manchester Central on the Southern New Hampshire University tennis courts Thursday.

The girls' state individual championship tournament for girls dates back to 1967. On the boys' side no one has ever won four titles in that tournament which started in 1957.

Keenan, who has said all along that she never felt the pressure to win four straight, was not lost for words in describing her feelings about accomplishing her four-peat feat.

“It's pretty awesome making history,” she said with a smile. “I never imagined doing this. I'm still amazed that I won this tournament when I was a freshman. Right now it's an incredible feeling.”

Keenan, who will attend Seton Hall University this fall, has also led the Saints to two team state titles and has a chance of winning her second doubles state crown next week. She finished her career undefeated in singles play.

“I want to thank my family, friends and coaches,” said Keenan. “Ever since I was a freshman, I wanted to compete and I wanted to dominate. I trained hard, especially over the last four years in high school. I really didn't know there was an individual or doubles tournament when I entered high school. I didn't even know until someone told me last year that no one had ever won four straight titles. When I found out, that's when I said I wanted to be the first to do it.”

The finals was a rematch of last year's state finals when Keenan defeated Geddes, 6-0, 6-0.

Geddes, a classy competitor who has a sense of humor, had the line of the day when she said “I went from 0 and 0 last year to 0 and 1 this year. I guess I improved from last year against Julia.”

Geddes called Keenan's feat “amazing. You know when you look back and see what she did as a freshman, beating all those seniors handily, you knew she was an outstanding player. She came out swinging hard and accurate today like she always does. You give her a short ball and it's gone. She just has an amazing amount of skill.”

Geddes is ranked fourth in her class and will be attending Northeastern University this fall.

During the finals match, there were two other funny incidents. One was watching Keenan looking for the right number in the bag to post the score on the board provided by the university. She'd pluck out every number but the right one until there were hardly any numbers left.

The other funny moment was Geddes' reaction when she learned she actually won a game against Keenan in the second set. “I honestly didn't know what the score was and kind of stood there.”

To that, Central coach Dave Wheeler laughed and said “I kept saying under my breath, take the win and move on. Just start the next game. But Casey had a tremendous career. She finished 55-0 in Division I during the regular season and her maturity level was just second to none. We will miss her.”

Keenan, who took many photos with friends, family and Geddes, summed up her career by saying “this means a lot. This is a stepping stone in life and I just want to embrace it.”

In the semifinals Keenan defeated Jennifer Dai of Bishop Guertin of Nashua 8-0, 8-1 while Geddes, who completed her quarterfinal round with an 8-6 win over Cassie Burbine of Londonderry, upended Brianna Leonard of Bishop Guertin of Nashua, 6-4, 1-6 and 10-5 in the tiebreaker.

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John Habib may be reached at jhabib@unionleader.com.