What Whitefish tennis coach Pat Dryden calls “the perfect duo” happened by accident, though Olivia Potthoff and Aubrey Hanks have known each other since before kindergarten.

“I was supposed to be partners with Claire Carloss but she was out of town,” Hanks remembered. “Coach Dryden said he was going to throw us together and we were like, ‘OK, yeah, for sure.’”

They were freshmen. The foe? The No. 1 doubles team from Columbia Falls.

“Dryden was like, ‘Oh, just have fun, tennis won’t always be like this,’ and the other team was like, ‘You know this is Doubles I, right?’ ” Hanks said. “Then we ended up winning and having so much fun, and Dryden was like, ‘I … see potential in you guys.’ ”

This Hanks-Potthoff buddy movie is now 40-9 in doubles play – and holding. They won’t get to defend the state doubles crown they won last May because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montana High School Association officially canceled spring sports last week.

It has been, Hanks admits, quite the run: They barely missed state as freshmen, finished third in doubles as sophomores and won state last year while the Bulldogs ran laps on the State A competition.

“They’ve been a great doubles team – best in our school history by far,” said Dryden, who has been at Whitefish High 23 years. “And they’re as different as night and day.

“One’s really tall and athletic but not really a tennis player – she hasn’t put in all that much time. One is shorter and surprisingly athletic and puts in a ton of time.”

“She’s really loud and I’m more the quiet one,” Potthoff asserts. “We couldn’t be more different – height, hair color, how we play tennis, personality. It’s kind of funny.”

And it works.

“We don’t know why it works on the court – it really shouldn’t, you know?” Hanks said. “But it’s a perfect match. We just make it happen.”

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Pressed, Dryden hits on what the secret may be.

“They reason they’ve been so successful is they’re so relaxed,” he said. “And the communication is like nothing I’ve ever seen. A couple chatter boxes.”

Beyond that, he said, “One (Potthoff) is more comfortable at the net and one is more on the baseline. And they’re almost never out of position. Neither one of them I would describe as powerful. They both have good serves, but they’re winning the long points.”

Dryden has had his concerns: While Hanks works often with pro Travis Cattron at The Summit, the 6-foot Potthoff has missed tournaments every year for dance competitions.

“She’s a fantastic danccer,” Dryden said. “At first it frustrated me because she missed so much tennis, but since then I’ve thought it has been the best thing for her. She is I believe the quickest girl I’ve ever coached.”

“She definitely has the long arms,” Hanks said. “She can pretty much stand in the middle of the net and reach everything – and what she can’t reach I can somehow get to in the back. I put my wheels on and go after it.”

Hanks keeps points alive to the point Dryden started calling her “Lob-rey.” Opponents had issues with that, among other things.

“We can just not take ourselves less serious,” Hanks said.

“It makes the other teams mad, sometimes,” Potthoff said. “But we’re just having a good time. I know it’s a cliché. But if I mess up terribly, Aubrey just starts laughing. If it’s her I do the same thing.”

“I think it definitely throws our competition off,” Hanks said. “‘Why are they laughing when that girl just completely whiffed?’ But that’s how it works for us – we let that one point go so we can smash the next one.”

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The pair went 15-3 last year, including an 8-0 superset loss to Hardin’s No. 1 team of Katie Murdock and Makiko Reisig at the Cut Bank. Hanks isn’t sure what happened, but noted that Potthoff made to the match it only because her mom drove her back from a dance competition Portland in time.

“They had this deal where they were second (at state) last year,” Hanks added. “We were maybe a little intimidated.”

Then came divisionals and a second loss to Polson’s Berkely Ellis and Qia Harlan. It was the second straight year without a divisional title for Hanks and Potthoff.

State was next, and their second-round foe was Hardin’s Murdock and Reisig, who hadn’t lost since the 2018 final. Hanks and Potthoff won 6-3, 7-5.

A straight-set win in the semifinals followed and there were Ellis and Harlan, again, and the Polson team won the first set 6-4. Then the formula kicked in.

“I think after we lost that first set we said, ‘OK, now we really need to have fun,’” Hanks said. “Last match of the season, whatever.”

They lost just two more games, taking the final two sets 6-1, 6-1.

“I’m sure that’s why we won,” Hanks said. “We didn’t even realize the last point was match point. Everybody said it was the most anticlimactic ending ever. People ran on the court and said, ‘You’re state champs!’ And Olivia and I looked at each other.

“It was the most Olivia and Aubrey thing that could have happened.”

Dryden is bummed: Six seniors were coming back for his girls, including Carloss, Abigail Shaffer, Payton Kastella and Jess Grawunder. That’s not to mention singles champion Gracie Smyley, a junior.

Brand-new uniforms have come in; these seniors won’t wear them. Soon enough Hanks will head for Northern Arizona University and Potthoff will join her brother at Southern Methodist. It’s not quite a Hollywood ending but it’s close.

“We always said we wanted to win state but we never thought we’d do it,” Potthoff said. “When the state match came and we won? We were just shocked.

“It’s kind of sad that we don’t get to defend that title but at least we went out with a bang.”

“We’ve been so close,” Hanks said. “Which is another benefit – I don’t think a lot of people get to be tennis partners with their best friend. So that was awesome.”