Hamilton's Annemarie Beach makes the statement repeatedly while patrolling the net in doubles action.

"Go here and there."

And her partner – freshman Natasha Aghenta - usually obliges with her serves and it is one of the reasons why the tandem is one of the best in Division I.

It was on display in the top-ranked Huskies' 7-2 home win over No. 3 Xavier on Wednesday.

The combo won the No. 1 singles handily 8-3 over Xavier's duo of Leighton Champagne and Harper Grove to help close out the Gators, who have won 20 state titles.

“Xavier is always a good measuring stick,” Hamilton coach Mark Zeller said. “They’re not completely healthy but it is still one of the best programs in the state.”

But the phrase Beach kept repeating carriers a different perspective when considering the Huskies (7-0) have never won a state title, but finished as state runner up twice (2019, 2021).

So, Hamilton has been "here" (state runner-up) but still wants to go “there” (state championship).

First-year head coach Mark Zeller, who was a longtime Hamilton assistant coach for both programs, hasn’t been shy about proclaiming the program has the ability to go there and win the first state title in the program.

“I thought we’d have a good chance to make a push to a state title and then when I realized what we had on Isha (Kaushik), I felt really good about it,” Zeller said. “I talked about winning a state title from the first day. We had a mandatory player/parent meeting, and I said, ‘This team can win state championship this year,’ and then I said, ‘Say it with me.’

“And everyone said it.”

The program reached a new level when Kaushik, who played in Spain on a national circuit when she was younger, showed up the last day of tryouts and took over the No. 1 spot on the team.

“I was accepted by everyone, and I am really having fun playing on a high school team,” Kaushik said. “We are winning a lot, and we talk about winning state.”

And that’s still the belief with a few weeks left in the regular season after an impressive showing at the Kiwanis tournament March 6-7 and then following up with a 5-4 win over Desert Mountain, which is the defending state champion and has won it all four times in the last five years, on March 24.

The arrival of sophomore Isha Kaushik gave Hamilton experienced No. 1. (Jason P. Skoda/AzPreps365)

The two teams split singles, but the Huskies took two of the three doubles matches.

“That was huge,” Zeller said. “It was tough match, but it really showed us what we can become.”

The Huskies didn’t have much trouble with the Gators (8-3), but it comes with a caveat as Xavier has been hit with an injury bug.

“We are a young team, and I have never had this many injuries,” Xavier coach Joy Rodey said. “We’ve had a lot of matches back-to-back too, so it has been a lot on their bodies. So, we weren’t expecting to win today. I told the girls to go and play as best as you can and see what happens.

“They did well considering we were missing three of our singles today. They saw we can still hang even though we have the injuries. Everything is pointing in the right direction.”

On this day, Hamilton was clearly the better team and has big ideas of what is to come the rest of the way.

“It’s exciting and great to see how far we’ve come in my years here,” Beach said. “We are getting so much support from everyone and were still trying to better.”

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