CAMBRIDGE — When you’re going up against a two-time defending state champion, you know you are in store for a real challenge. A lot of things have to go your way to come out on top.

Saturday at MIT’s duPont Athletic Center in the Division 4 girls state final, that’s exactly the predicament the No. 3 Lynnfield Pioneers were facing in their attempt to take down top-ranked Hamilton-Wenham and bring home a sixth state title.

The Pioneers hadn’t been to a final since 2014, when they won a fifth state title under head coach Craig Stone, the only coach of the girls team in program history.

All season long, junior captain Paige Martino and sophomore Lily Alves have been the go-to gals for the Pioneers at first and second singles, respectively. Coming into the Hamilton-Wenham match, they had racked up singles records of 22-2 and 20-3, respectively. But Saturday, they met their matches in Emma Jani and Naomi Provost, both of whom carry top rankings on the New England circuit.

Alves was the first to go down, 0-6, 0-6, to Provost in the second singles match. Martino followed about five minutes later, dropping the first singles match 0-6, 1-6, to put the Pioneers in a 0-2 hole.

“I think I got off to a slow start, but I definitely pushed myself in the second set and had a lot of deuces,” Martino said. “The second set was way better compared to the first, even though the score wasn’t really close.”

Alves said her opponent “came out with a hard serve.”

“I think she remembered me from the last time we played, so she knew what she had to do,” Alves said. “She hit the ball in places where she knew I wasn’t able to get. But I did keep her to deuce in a lot of points, so I really think the score didn’t show how the match went.”

Stone said he expected it would come down to the third singles match and both doubles matches. And, in a way, he was right as all three matches were extremely competitive. The only problem for Lynnfield was, the Pioneers just couldn’t finish their chances, losing all three matches in straight sets.

Vicky McCrann and Emma Wagon fell at second doubles to Maddie Minich and Angelina Meimetecs, 2-6, 2-6, leaving the first doubles duo of senior captain Leticia Marafon and Ella Hayman and senior captain Maddie Sieve (third singles) alone on the court, hoping to salvage a couple of points and spoil a shutout.

Trailing 0-1 after dropping the first set 3-6, Sieve battled back to force a tiebreaker in the second set, only to lose the set, 6-7, to Ellie Holbrook and bump the Generals’ lead to 4-0.

Marafon and Hayman battled gamely with many long points and deuces against Sienna Gregory and Emily McIntosh, but went down in the final match of the day, 4-6, 5-7.

“Both doubles teams have been competitive all year long, but have been unable to find a way to close out close matches. That’s a little bit of what you saw today,” Stone said.

Hamilton-Wenham coach Joe Maher said he knew third singles and doubles “were going to be very important for us.”

“We expected they would come out doing some lobbing and creative things against us, because we know Craig concedes nothing and is such a great coach,” Maher said. “This group I have has some great camaraderie and has put in a lot of work in the offseason and all year. It’s been a lot of fun.”