Manchester
On the flip side, it means Hanover’s seasons end a smidge sooner than they have in the past.
Showing ability through its full lineup, top-ranked Bedford sent No. 4 Hanover packing from the state D-I tournament with an 8-1 semifinal win on Friday on the Bedford High School courts. Senior Ellen Lamm, at third singles, earned the Marauders’ only point, although a handful of Hanover players kept their contests competitive.
The Marauders (12-4) joined D-I on the heels of three consecutive D-II state championships, the last in 2016. Hanover fell in last year’s D-I finals to Derryfield; Bedford (16-0), meanwhile, returns to the title match after a one-year absence.
“Their team has a lot of depth, and I think they’re going to go really far because their team is also really young,” Lamm said. “So I think they’ll go really far both this year and in the years coming.”
After graduating two seniors from the top of the singles ladder last spring, Hanover coach Liz Murray kept her expectations in check this spring. She went home on Friday pleased with how the campaign went, a semifinal defeat notwithstanding.
“I knew it was a match that we had the potential to take,” Murray said. “We lost to them in the regular season, but a lot of that had to do with their consistency. I think our girls here at Hanover showed they could remain really consistent, and they stuck through it.”
Indeed, the Marauders showed some gumption early. Mindy Wu split her first two games with freshman Carley Citron at No. 1, Bri Laycock went back and forth with junior Caroline Herz at No. 2, Lamm gave as good as she got with freshman Taylor Suozzo at No. 3 and Spanish exchange student Marta Sanchez rallied after a slow start in her match with junior Sophia Dimos at No. 5.
Bedford hit the gas at that point and drove away.
Citron reeled off five straight games from that early 1-1 tie for an 8-3 defeat of Wu. Laycock’s seesaw affair finally fell for Herz, who notched the last three games of an 8-5 decision. Down 4-1 but as close as 5-4, Sanchez couldn’t prevent Dimos from taking an 8-4 win. No. 4 Abigail Tjie (8-1 over Grace Li) and No. 6 Alba Iturriagagoitia (8-0 over Carly Miles) secured the five points the Bulldogs needed to advance.
Lamm prevented the shutout by outlasting Suozzo, 8-6. The Hanover senior, one of six on the roster, jumped to a 3-0 lead, then trailed 5-4 before taking four of the last five games.
“She’s a really, really good player, and she hits really hard,” Lamm said of Suozzo. “I think what was key for me was just keeping on hitting it back and keep going for all the balls she was hitting, even though they were hit really, really hard. I think my consistency ultimately helped me.”
Bedford’s boys are on an eight-year championship streak, and the girls will be entering their fifth final in six years. Such talent begins at an early level, Bedford coach Chris Bouressa said.
“A lot of it has to do with my assistant coach here,” said Bouressa, referencing assistant Mauricio Vivado. “He runs a middle school program, and if I had to put a number on it, I’d say probably 80 percent of our players start out at the middle-school level. They just develop a passion for the sport, and that’s where they start. By the time they get into high school, they’ve been playing a little bit.”
Murray hopes for similar aid for Hanover in the coming years as the Marauders continue their voyage in the NHIAA’s big-school waters.
“I think the biggest benefit is that we are playing a lot of teams who play a lot of tennis,” she said. “It’s really nice to be able to have that level of competition.”
As she leaves, Lamm likes the direction the Marauders are headed.
“Next year is going to be interesting, although we do have some good players coming up from the eighth grade,” she noted. “I’m excited to see new faces on the team next year, although I’m not going to be here.”
Aces: No. 3 Bishop Guertin dethroned No. 2 Derryfield, 7-2, in the day’s other semifinal, setting up a championship match with Bedford on Wednesday at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. … The Bulldogs’ roster includes four freshmen, seven sophomores, five juniors and no seniors. … Hanover dropped all three doubles points, two by 8-2 scores and the other by an 8-1 margin. … Lamm plans to enter Northeastern University this fall, intent on studying health science and possibly playing club tennis. … Like Sanchez, Bedford’s Iturriagagoitia is an exchange student from Spain. … Laycock, Li and Wu join Hamm in the graduation line with fellow seniors Helen Smith and Emma Roy-Burwell. … Retiring Hanover athletic director Mike Jackson made the trip south for the match. He said his final day on the job will be June 29, whereupon he’ll join his son in Washington to see the Red Sox and Nationals play in early July.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.