The Roncalli High School tennis team’s successful season ended in disappointing fashion Wednesday.

The 17th-ranked Rebels lost to Franklin 3-2 in the championship match of the Center Grove Regional, denying the school its first regional title in girls tennis. Roncalli had beaten Franklin 5-0 during the season.

“I’m not sure if people realize how hard that is to do,” said Franklin coach Rusty Hughes. “You have to turn three matches around. It’s not like baseball. This says a lot about how hard our kids have worked.”

The Rebels didn’t have a good day.

“The girls took it pretty hard,” said first-year Roncalli coach Loye Kegley. “They played their best, (and) that’s all you can ask, but they knew it would be the first time Roncalli would have made it to semistate. With Franklin beating Center Grove, we thought it was a real chance for us.”

Roncalli got victories on Tuesday from Katie Austin, who beat Franklin’s Abby Smith 7-5, 6-0 at No. 2 singles; and Stephanie Gartrell and Katherine Vance, who beat Franklin’s K.B. Lazell and Natalie Snyder 6-3, 0-6, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.

The Grizzly Cubs built an insurmountable 3-1 lead when Chelsea Bujarsky beat Roncalli’s Alex Servie 7-5, 6-1 at No. 3 singles. Servie had beaten Bujarsky 6-4, 6-4 in the regular-season match.

Franklin won its first regional title since 1983 and plays top-ranked Park Tudor in the North Central Semistate today.