The Tremper girls tennis team needed just one year to reclaim its usual title: Undefeated Southeast Conference champion.

After suffering only its second SEC defeat in team history last season against crosstown rival Bradford and eventually losing out on the regular-season conference crown, the Trojans offered a bit of payback in claiming a 4-3 victory over the host Red Devils in a winner-take-all match on Tuesday.

Tremper finished 7-0 in the SEC.

“Our girls played really well,” Tremper co-coach Tom Pacetti said. “As we’re getting further into the season, our letdowns are less and less and we’re beating the teams we should beat. I was proud of them.”

The Trojans swept Bradford in doubles — with straight-set victories in all three flights — and secured a pivotal match at No. 3 singles with senior Rachel Shapiro claiming a 6-1, 6-1 win over Bradford’s Kim Jozefiak.

“She’s just nails,” Pacetti said about Shapiro. “She’s tough to beat. You better come ready to play against Rachel and be ready to play for hours. We would have ran out of daylight if it was a little tighter match. Not a lot of girls are that mentally tough.”

Tremper’s No. 1 doubles team of Jenna Humphreys and Brianna Riley defeated Paige Pfarr and Marissa Garetto, 6-1, 6-1, while the Trojans’ No. 2 doubles team of Sonja Johnson and Kari Kirkegaard beat Hannah Zimmerman and Alyssa Perugini, 6-2, 6-1. Tremper’s Hollie White and Mara Bertog recorded a 6-2, 6-0 win over Bryanna VanBlarcom and Alana Wamboldt at No. 3 doubles.

Karyn Guttormsen, Bradford’s No. 1 singles player, needed a late second-set comeback to hold off freshman Megan Humphries, 6-3, 7-6(3) in a closely-contested match.

Guttormsen trailed 5-1 in the second set before rallying to win four straight games and eventually prevail in the tiebreaker. The hard-hitting sophomore improved to 20-1 with the victory.

“She has to learn how to slow her game down and slow her racket down,” Bradford coach Kevin Guttormsen said. “She played in a tournament this past weekend against kids hitting the ball 40 miles per hour faster. When she got down 5-1, she slowed down mentally and gathered herself a lot more.”

Megan Humphreys took the opening game of the first set and built a 3-2 lead when Guttormsen held serve and then broke serve in taking a 4-3 edge. In the second set, Humphreys won five straight games in taking a 5-1 lead only to falter down the stretch.

“I think what happened is she tried to start hitting with (Guttormsen) a little bit and was trying to out-hit her,” Tremper co-coach Mike Lewis said. “You can’t do that against Karyn. Give Karyn credit. She really picked up her game and we didn’t have an answer for it.”

Bradford’s Trina Capelli beat Garette Gessert, 6-4, 7-5 at No. 2 singles and Red Devil Megha Shah outlasted Julia Broesch 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

“Our kids fought hard,” said Kevin Guttormsen, whose team finished 6-1 in the SEC. “Tremper is a good team. We’re going to have to find a way to beat them. I don’t see many weak spots.”

Tremper hosts the SEC Tournament Oct. 1 and Oct. 3 at various locations throughout the city.