For the Windham High boys tennis team, revenge is a dish that is best served … well, just served.

The top-seeded and undefeated Eagles had vengeance on their minds when No. 5 Cheverus paid them a visit on Saturday in the Western Maine Class A semifinals. It was the Stags who – also as the five seed a year ago – knocked off No. 1 Windham 3-2 in the semis, handing the Rams their first loss of the year and ending their season.

The roles were eerily similar this time around, but the outcome was decidedly different. Windham, with six players back from last season, served up a 5-0 victory, with all five wins determined in straight sets.

Then on Wednesday evening, just before this edition’s deadline, the Eagles won the regional finals, 4-1 over No. 2 Scarborough at the indoor Racket & Fitness Center in Portland. They’ll play for the state championship on Saturday at Colby College in Waterville against the Eastern Maine champ, either undefeated No. 1 seed Lewiston (the six-time defending state champs who beat Windham for the 2006 crown) or No. 6 Brunswick.

Against Cheverus, Dan Crocker put Windham (15-0) in the driver’s set early, making quick work of Conner O’Neil at No. 2 singles. Crocker won 6-0, 6-0 in the first match to conclude.

According to Crocker, starting quickly and finishing the job was the goal. “It was to get off to a fast start so that we don’t get discouraged and start losing, then start thinking, ‘Oh no, it’s happening again,'” he said.

The Eagles led 2-0 after Nate Johnson dispatched Will Lenk at No. 1 singles, also 6-0, 6-0.

The clincher came at No. 1 doubles as Kurt Stultz and Nick Rallis, the two-time SMAA doubles champions, avenged a regular-season loss to Cheverus’ Eliot Coates and Mackenzie Crosby, 6-3, 6-2.

“We’ve finally done something that we hadn’t done before – we finished them off,” Stultz said.

“We wanted to get out and hit them as best we could and finish them off,” echoed Rallis.

Windham coach Wayne Martin was very pleased with his team’s execution.

“Against teams like Cheverus, you have to win the first set,” he said. “You’ve got to get on top early. That was definitely part of our mental strategy today, knowing that if we get off to a good start, we’re going to be all right.”

Through the offseason and preseason, Martin frequently reminded his players – still relatively young with five juniors and a freshman among the top seven – of the loss to Cheverus last season. But once this season commenced, that talk ceased.

“It was definitely motivation heading into this year. After preseason, we really didn’t breathe a word of it. We didn’t want it to be something we were thinking about,” Martin said.

Said Crocker: “I think we were a little bit overconfident last year. We came in this year and took every match seriously, one at a time.”

Shortly after the Eagles clinched their berth in the Western Maine finals, the No. 2 doubles team of Fernando Leon-Prado (the lone senior) and Ryan Johnson (the freshman) finished off Mike Jerome and D.J. Honan, 6-2, 6-3.

With No. 3 singles the only match still in progress, the Eagles congregated on the corner court, farthest from the bleachers and throng of fans, to cheer on Dan McGovern, who won his first set 6-4, but was struggling in his second set against the Stags’ Connor Shoos.

“When he was down in the second set 0-3, he had a group of guys over there and it really turned him around,” Martin said. “He’s over in the dungeon over there. No one really gets to see his matches. When he gets a big crowd there it pumps him up and it really got him thorough that match.”

McGovern pulled out the second set, 6-4, to give the Eagles a clean, straight-set sweep.

Last season when the Eagles went undefeated in the regular season, they showed they were a talented group. A year later, they’ve shown their mental game is up there with their physical one.

“These guys are battle tested,” Martin said. “They’ve learned from years past. They know how to win under pressure. They play all the time. Practices are pressure packed. Our theme this year for our team was mental toughness.

“We don’t work a lot on our ground strokes. If you want a tennis lesson, we can work on that in the offseason. In season, we’re working on the head game, we’re working on the strategical, tactical stuff that you work on in a match, and it’s paying off.”