Bishop tennis caps strong season with team title
May 19—TRIAD — Bishop McGuinness had the sense it had the pieces to make a deep playoff run. It just had to figure out how they fit.
Once it did, the results quickly followed.
The Villains capped a stellar season by beating Voyager Academy 5-0 on Saturday morning at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center and capturing the NCHSAA 1A dual team boys tennis state championship.
"It feels great," said junior Timothy Hackman, who was named the championship MVP. "This is a totally different feeling than individuals. To do it as a team is something I'll never forget. I don't think it's totally sunk in yet, but it feels awesome."
Three years removed from the last dual team finals — in which Bishop lost 5-2 against Raleigh Charter — the championship was back following the COVID season in 2020 and the heavily altered season in 2021.
And so were the Villains. They lost their opening match of the season 7-2 against Wesleyan Christian and never lost again — tallying 17 straight victories, including one against the Trojans just a couple weeks later.
"At the beginning of the season, we lost our first match — we got smoked," Hackman said. "I always had a dream coming into high school that I'd win a state championship. It's hard to do.
"I think after that first match we had a reality check that, if we want to do this, that we're going to have to be serious. We all wanted this — especially the seniors because they went to one and lost. We felt like this was our year and it was."
Bishop, after cruising through the Northwest Piedmont Conference, then set off into the individual regional and state tournaments. No. 1 doubles team Luca Pestana and Hackman and No. 2 doubles team Josh Hanflink and Evan Sturgill qualified for the state event and met in the semifinals.
Pestana and Hackman emerged victorious on their way to winning the state championship. And that just helped pave the way for the Villains in dual team play. Seeded No. 4 in the 1A West, they beat No. 13 Cherryville 9-0, No. 5 Thomas Jefferson 5-1 and No. 9 East Wilkes 6-0 in the first three rounds.
Bishop fended off No. 10 Elkin, which provided a few challenges at certain positions, to win the regional championship 6-3. It then met Voyager, the No. 3 seed from the East, in the state championship. A pivotal win by Hackman at No. 3 singles put Hanflink/Sturgill in position to quickly clinch the title in doubles.
"It's finding that chemistry," said Villains coach Larry Ingram, whose son, Jonathan, won a title with the team in 2014. "And that's definitely true in doubles. You have to know what your partner's going to do. In any good doubles team, one could be up and the other down.
"So, it's a matter of pumping each other up, and it's learning to mesh your talents. Like with Luca and Tim, they have totally different games. It took four or five games to get that feel for where we needed to be. Once we locked it in, we stayed with it the rest of the season. So, it's chemistry and no egos."
All year long, Bishop — led by senior captains Pestana, Jake Whalen and Grant Wilson — laid the groundwork to make a run at the end, and it paid off.
"We have felt that (falling in the state championship)," Ingram said, "and some of the players here have experienced that. I think that made them want it even more. We've been second before and we've only been first twice in the past. So, we want that. They were totally committed to winning today.
"They wanted to bring it back. They really, really did. And they knew the West was stronger this year. So, if we were going to have an opportunity, this was the year to do it. And they seized their opportunity. We played some really good teams this year and all through the playoffs."
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