Four days, four matches, four 5-0 wins.

It was that simple for Sewickley Academy's boys tennis team to claim its fifth WPIAL title in a row, culminating with a win over Mt. Pleasant at Lakevue Athletic Club on Friday.

With no comparable program among the WPIAL's Class AA teams, the Panthers have to rely on other forms of motivation, namely, preparing for a state title and maintaining the level of excellence the Sewickley Academy program has known for nearly two decades.

"You want to compare yourselves to those teams," said No. 1 singles player Matt Kaye of the Academy's past championship teams.

"You hear the stories the coaches tell you about those other teams and you want to be better than them."

"We joke around with the players from two and three years ago, saying that our team is the best in school history," added Matt Hoch, the No. 2 singles player and WPIAL singles champion.

"It just shows our tradition that since 1992, we've won 13 WPIAL titles. And that's a tribute to (head coach Whitney Snyder) and what a great coach he is."

From day one of this season, or more accurately, from the final day of the 2007 season, the one team that the current group Panthers has their sights set on equaling is the 2006 squad.

That team, which Hoch, Kaye, and many of the other current players were a part of, is the only Sewickley Academy team to capture the PIAA title. This year's group intends to be the second, and they're not going to let previous success go to their heads.

"We don't take anything for granted," Kaye said.

"In soccer, we won (the WPIAL championship) my sophomore year, and then we had a losing season my junior year. You can never take any championship for granted."

Nor can the players take any match for granted, as Hoch quickly found out on Friday.

Playing second singles while being the WPIAL individual champion, it would seem, on paper, as though Hoch shouldn't be tested until PIAA play. Mt. Pleasant's Eric Bradley felt otherwise.

Bradley raced out to a 4-0 lead, but it was more on his own merit than anything Hoch did wrong. The Mt. Pleasant junior made shot after shot, keeping Hoch on his heels and breaking serve twice.

Finally, the Sewickley senior found his bearings, recovering to force a first-set tiebreaker, which he won, 7-2.

Hoch ended up with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 victory in the end, but not without a very stiff test.

"That kid was really good. I was surprised," Hoch said. "He came out fast and played great, but I just kept playing my game and got the win."

"It gets old playing the same teams and beating them easily, so it's great that Mt. Pleasant came out fired up and gave us a great match."

While none of the other four matches were as close as Hoch's, none of them were the kind of, 6-0, 6-0, walkovers that are all too common for the Panthers.

Kaye won against Kyle Bradley, 6-1, 6-0, in a more closely contested match than the score reflected, while at third singles, Vik Sunder got off to a fast start to beat David Cenkner, 6-0, 6-4.

In doubles, Jeff DelPresto and Parth Sharma had an easy second set in a 6-2, 6-0 win over Scott Swank and Danny Berton, while Kendall Weir and Alex Miller were 6-0, 6-4 winners over Justin DePalma and Nick Marhefka.

"You never know which teams are going to be good, especially when you get to states, so you just have to give it 100 percent, every time," Hoch said.

The Panthers effort was enough to dispatch all four of their WPIAL tournament opponents -- West Allegheny, Keystone Oaks and Mars, before Mt. Pleasant -- in shutout fashion. But the WPIAL champs need only to look back to last year and across Beaver Road for a cautionary tale.

Quaker Valley's girls tennis team accomplished the same feat, a 20-0 WPIAL tournament, to win its Class AA title last October. The next week, the Quakers fell in the state finals, the same fate that befell the Sewickley Academy boys in both 2005 and 2007.

But with Lower Moreland, the team that beat Sewickley Academy in last year's finals, lurking in the other half of the bracket, complacency probably won't be an issue for the Panthers.

The issue will be which team can be the best in three matches over two days this weekend in Hershey. With a number of capable teams in the tournament, the Panthers won't know until this Saturday if they will measure up with the 2006 team.

"I have confidence in Matt (Hoch) and the rest of my team," Kaye said.

"Everyone's going to be fired up in Hershey, and you don't know who it's going to come down to in the end."

Sewickley Academy did take the first step toward Hershey successfully, taking out District 5 champion Bedford in the first round of the PIAA tournament at Hempfield High School on Tuesday.

The Panthers will face the winner between Westmont Hilltop and Lancaster Catholic in the quarterfinals, at the Hershey Racquet Club on Friday at 11 a.m.