Hanover
The top-ranked Marauders (16-1) left Dartmouth College’s Boss Tennis Center in familiar territory on Friday after using their depth to overpower top-heavy No. 4 Exeter, 6-3, in the NHIAA D-I semifinals. It is Hanover’s fourth consecutive championship appearance, a program first in D-I, after three straight titles at D-II.
The Blue Hawks (13-3) were the only team in four years to solve the Marauders, snapping their multi-season streak on April 10th. It was Hanover’s second match of the season, and the Marauders were without top-six athletes Margaret Werner and Ellen Lamm.
Werner, a senior, said her team didn’t focus too much on the early-season loss; at the time, many of her teammates expected that kind of pushback as a consequence from moving up to face tougher competition. But any kind of loss is hard to ignore completely when it’s the only one your team has suffered over four seasons and 66 matches.
“We didn’t really talk about the Exeter match too much,” Werner said. “It wasn’t something we focused on. And it wasn’t something a big motivator, like, ‘Let’s go out there and beat the team that beat us.’ It was more like, ‘Let’s try and remain calm. Hopefully, this time around it’ll be better given that we have our full lineup.’ ”
Added Hanover head coach Liz Murray: “The girls described it as a good loss. When they got on the bus afterwards, they said it was a good loss because we played the best that we could play, we were outplayed in this particular match and we know we just need to continue to push ourselves to be the best that we can in case we see them again, and we did.”
No. 6 singles proved to be the key match in securing Hanover’s spot in the final. Junior Grace Li came back to force a tiebreaker against Exeter’s Charlotte Gaughan and won, 7-1, in the extra set. Hanover led, 4-2, after singles matches and needed just one win in doubles to clinch.
That the victory was secured with a 8-4 win by Lamm and Werner at No. 2 doubles, both absent during Hanover’s first match against the Blue Hawks, seemed like poetic justice.
“Personally, for me, coming off my singles match that I lost, my mind wasn’t in the best place,” said Werner, who fell to Exeter’s Melissa Wood, 8-3, at No. 2 singles. “I was watching Grace’s match. She was just incredible. … That was the most amazing thing. Our No. 2 doubles game was dedicated to Grace.”
The top of Hanover’s singles lineup, Werner at No. 2 and senior Rine Uhm at No. 1, were both bested in their singles matches; Uhm lost, 8-3, to Exeter’s Ashley Keaveney.
But Hanover’s depth showed its experience with wins by Mindy Wu, 8-2, at No. 3 singles; Bri Laycock, 8-5, at No. 4 singles; and Lamm, 8-2, at No. 5 singles. Wu and Li also won their No. 3 doubles match, 8-4.
“The level of play has been awesome. It’s been a really good challenge for us this year,” Murray said of her team’s move to D-I. “I just feel like the team has worked really hard to sort of meet the challenges that they’ve come across. One of them was losing very early on in the season to Exeter and coming back to end up with a really positive end to our season.”
“I could not be more proud of this team this year,” she added.
Werner is signed up to join Amherst College’s women’s squash team next season, a skill that she admitted is rare among her classmates. It shows in her game, which has much less power than her teammates — or her opponents — but more of a pinpoint accuracy in each of her carefully calculated shots.
A similar description can be applied to her Marauders, which features a deep, consistently strong lineup seemingly built to win team titles. For Werner, heading to college with four tennis championships in her pocket and the Marauders back on another winning streak would be quite the accomplishment, even if it happens on a different court than she’s used to.
“A lot of the wrist work that I do is the same (between tennis and squash),” Werner said. “It’s hard; in squash it’s a lot whacking the ball around, but here I have to temper that so that it stays within the boundaries of tennis.
“Personally, I’ve gotten progressively more nervous (for every championship). As a freshman, you kind of go into it thinking, ‘The seniors have been there. They can kind of show me the ropes.’ Then, it became more and more on me. It definitely became a more stressful event.”
Hanover will play the winner of the other semifinal match between No. 2 Manchester Central and No. 3 Derryfield on Wednesday at Pinkerton Academy for its fourth consecutive championship; results from the other semifinal match were not yet posted as of late Friday night. Hanover has beaten both semifinal teams in the regular season.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.