She was the team's No. 1 player as a freshman. She played with a future state champion as a sophomore and junior.

And now, as the team's only senior, she's the veteran in a lineup that starts two freshmen.

But in each of her four seasons at Green Hope she's been the part of a conference champion team.

Green Hope completed its fifth consecutive conference championship on Wednesday, fending off second-place Panther Creek by a 5-4 score. In each of those seasons, the Falcons have been undefeated in their league.

"It hasn't hit me yet," Wang said. "It's definitely special."

The Falcons were in jeopardy of losing their season finale, as Panther Creek (15-2, 13-2) took a 2-1 lead after doubles. In the two teams' prior meeting, Green Hope had swept doubles and won three singles matches. If the Falcons did the same on Wednesday, they'd end up with a co-conference championship.

Green Hope players knew they had to win four of the six singles matches, but Wang's leadership kicked in to ease her younger teammates' nerves.

"I didn't want to put any pressure on my teammates," Wang said. "I just told everyone to go out there and have fun because that's what I was going to do."

And fun is exactly what Green Hope had after picking up wins at Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6 singles thanks to Wang, freshman Jurasia Horvat, sophomore Priyanka Srinivas and freshman Brantley Belk.

The first singles win was notched by PC's Brooke Namboodri's at No. 5 singles, while the last was by Catamounts No. 1 seed Megan Smith -- who won in a third-set tiebreaker 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7). But the two singles victories were only bookends for the Falcons.

"We knew things were going to be changed in their lineup. We knew the players though, so we felt we could get it done if we just gave our best effort," said Green Hope coach Beth Hedgepeth.

Both teams will be in the state team tennis playoffs, which begin in two weeks. The Tri-Nine individual tennis tournament, which lasts two days, begins Tuesday at Cary Tennis Park.