LEBANON — The Hanover High boys tennis team is headed to the semifinals after dispatching Londonderry High, 8-1, in an NHIAA Division I quarterfinals matchup at the River Valley Club on Friday afternoon.
The No. 2 seed Bears cruised to a match victory over the No. 7 seed Lancers, clinching their advancement in the postseason in singles with victories from junior Ben Pearson (8-1), junior Ben Hannan (8-3), sophomore Nate Holt (8-3), freshman Sammy Birnstengel (8-0), and junior Wolfgang Wu (8-1).
Hanover also swept the doubles matches with wins from the duos of sophomore Quinn O’Regan and Pearson (8-4), Holt and sophomore Izaiah Siegel (8-3), and Hannan and Birnstengel (8-0).
“I thought they played well,” Bears’ Head Coach Kelly Finn said of her squad’s performance. “They’re some good competition — I was happy with how everybody played.”
The match, initially scheduled to be played at Storrs Pond Recreation Area, was moved indoors due to the weather. Finn acknowledged that this changed some things, but the Bears took it in stride.
“It’s a little bit different — the courts tend to be a little bit faster indoors; of course, the lighting is different, and there’s a smaller space because we have the walls and the nets,” she said.
This Hanover postseason win continues to build on the success of a program that has been outright dominant in recent years.
Since 2019, the Bears have appeared in every D-I state championship with the exception of the COVID-canceled 2020 season and 2021, and have won two titles in that span.
This year’s success, which includes a 13-1 regular-season record, is made even more special by the fact that the Bears are doing this with a relatively young squad.
“We lost a lot of seniors — but we had a really strong group of freshmen and sophomores last year, and so this year we still have a pretty deep, pretty strong team, and considering we have no seniors at all, everybody’s returning next year so it’s looking good,” Finn said.
Standing in the way of yet another championship appearance for Hanover is No. 3 seed Derryfield. The two squads did face off in the regular season, with the Bears coming out on top 7-2.
“We look forward to playing them… had some close matches in there (during the regular season) — the two that we lost were good close matches — again, we like to have those, we like having good competition,” Finn said.
The NHIAA Division I semifinal matchup between Hanover and Derryfield is set for Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Storrs Pond Recreation Area.
