A day after the championships of the Capital District boys tennis tournament were settled, Atlee and Hanover returned to the courts at Lee-Davis to battle it out for second. The Hawks (14-3) got strong play across the board then fought off a fierce Raider (11-4) rally to claim the Central Region berth 5-0.

  The dominant Henrico boys tennis team rolled through the Capital District regular season then did the same in last week’s league tournament.

  “We knew Henrico was going to be pretty much unstoppable,” said Atlee head coach Joey Rogers.

  The district’s top two players, Warrior freshman Shyam Venkat and older brother Arjun, who claimed, district Player of the Year honors, faced off for the singles championship with Shyam taking the title 6-0, 6-0. In doubles, it was the Venkats versus Atlee’s Thomas Rischoff and Kit Guncheon where Arjun and Shyam pulled out a 6-0, 6-2 win.

  “The Venkats over at Henrico, they’re very good players,” said Hanover freshman Danny Polk. “Shyam, he’s like nationally ranked so you don’t want to set your expectations too high, but we knew that Hanover and Atlee were going to have the tight race for the two spot. It was just too hard to get the one spot this year.”

  During the regular season, Atlee downed the Hawks in their first match of the season but fell to Hanover the second time the two teams faced off. 

  Before the season began, Rogers thought his Raiders team was talented enough to lay claim to second but that changed after seeing the Hawks for the first time.

  “I was a little surprised, but Hanover had a lot of new talent out and they’re a great team,” Rogers said. “After seeing them I knew they were going to be tough competition.”

  Much of the Hawks’ toughness came from youngsters Polk and Logan Healy.

  “Watching Danny play and Connor’s (Healy) little brother play during the district tournament, they looked phenomenal,” Rogers said. “So I knew those guys, they were going to be tough to beat.”

  For a freshman playing at #1, Polk had exceptional first varsity season. Polk got off to a strong start in his playoff match versus Atlee’s Rishcoff, rolling to a 6-2 first set win.

  But Rischoff battled back, which did not come as a surprise to his long time friend Polk. “Me and Thomas, we play a lot at Burkwood so we’re used to playing each other,” Polk said. “We’ve played each other so many times and we knew it was going to be a very good match.”

  Rischoff roared back to sweep Polk in the second set 6-0, setting up a battle down the stretch before Polk pulled out the match 6-4.

  Nearly every other court followed the example of the #1 match, with Hanover rolling out of the gate only to see the Raiders fight back.

  At #2, Hanover’s Connor Healy took a 6-2 first set win over Atlee’s Jackson Snyder but had to hold on in the second before claiming the match in a 7-6 tie-break.

  The same scenario played out in closer fashion at #5 where Hanover’s Taylor Napier took the first set over Owen Fitzgerald 6-4 then won the match a 7-5.

  “It’s a big match, you’re going to put up a fight,” Polk said. “It was for regionals. You’re going to play Cosby in the regionals now so it’s a big match so you never want to quit so we expected a good fight from them.”

  At #3, Hanover’s Logan Healy downed Guncheon 6-4, 6-1 while teammate James Pollard pulled out a 6-3, 6-1 win over Dan Moneghan at #4.

  Atlee’s Patrick Reagan took an early lead on Connor Harrison at #6, only to see his Hawk opponent come back. The match was not completed after the Hawks claimed the decisive fifth win.

  Though Atlee did not reach regional play as a team, the duo of Rischoff and Guncheon will advance in doubles.

  “Thomas is definitely one of the great players in the district,” Rogers said. “It’s good to see he made the regional level again this year. Kit has had a great season and has worked really hard.”

Capital District playoff
Hanover 5, Atlee 0
Singles: Polk d. Rishcoff 6-4, 0-6, 6-4; C. Healy d. Snyder 6-2, 7-6; L. Healy d. Guncheon 6-4, 6-1; Pollard d. Moneghan 6-3, 6-1; Napier d. Fitzgerald 6-4, 7-5.
Records: Hanover 14-3; Atlee 11-4