Photos by Charlie Leffler
Above: Senior Andrew Tarbox, the Hawks’ number two player, can boast that he is part of a Hanover team that has taken the Capital District title throughout his high school career. Below: Hanover’s number one player, junior Jacob Bean will seek his third consecutive Capital District singles title this week.

Hanover seniors complete Capital sweep
By Charlie Leffler


May 06, 2008

Hanover boys tennis takes fourth consecutive district title

For the past three years, the Hanover boys’ tennis team has dominated the Capital District, taking the title with relative ease. This year, the Hawks faced a greater challenge. Not only had their district opponents improved, but they were faced with the daunting task of replacing half of their lineup. In the end, the regular season result was the same with the Hawks’ taking the district title once more, but for the players, this year seemed to bring a bit more satisfaction because of the challenges they overcame.

With this year’s title, the Hawks’ seniors Andrew Tarbox, Daniel Lehman and Tim Goodloe can graduate boasting that their team has taken the Capital District title throughout their high school careers. 

“It feels pretty good,” said Tarbox, who plays the number two slot.
Tarbox is not only pleased with the fact that he can go out a winner, but that Hanover won despite getting stiffer competition from its closest rival, Atlee. “I think Atlee especially, has gotten a lot closer to us the last couple of years,” he said. “The top four (Atlee) people can pretty much play with us.”

Lehman agrees. “We beat them but they gave us a run for our money,” he said.

And for the Hawks, talk of winning the district title pretty well begins and ends with Atlee. “The one that really matters is beating Atlee every year,” Lehman said. “The district kind of comes with that. It’s always the two of us at the top. You beat them, you get the districts.”

“Our biggest challenge was playing Atlee,” Tarbox said. 

Like the upper classmen, three-year junior player Jacob Bean, who plays at number one, agreed that the district title was more of challenge this year. “This year was a little tougher because the new kid from Henrico (Arjun Venkatasubramanian) is playing really well,” he said. “He beat me one time. The guy (Shao-Wei Tu) from Atlee’s playing real well. It made it a little tougher this year.”

And though the team can feel good with the win, Coach Aaron Bradley said seeing his seniors claim their fourth consecutive title is not a climax to their careers. “No highlight yet, it really comes down the district tournament and the regional tournament,” he said. “All the rest is just a warm up and just qualifying. “

Likewise, the players understand that their biggest challenge still lies ahead. “You don’t want to beat kids during the regular season then lose to them when it really matters, just like in any sport,” Bean said.

For Bradley, the team still has work to do on getting its doubles game going. Despite dominating in singles play, Hanover will go into the post season as the number two team when it comes to doubles, having lost to Atlee twice in that category.

Though Bean joked of enjoying the underdog role, Bradley would prefer a win in tournament play.

“All of the doubles teams are working together for the first time,” he said. “Some of the other teams’ guys have been working together for a couple of years. It takes a little time for the guys to learn to communicate with a new partner and feel out each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s a little different game that the doubles play.”

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