OUR ATHLETE OF THE WEEK COMMUNITY PARTNER
Each week, Monitor staff selects and interviews a local Athlete of the Week. Learn more about their accomplishments, their goals and what makes them unique. We’d like to thank our sponsor Capital City Kia.
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Carter and Ethan Hall, a pair of brothers on the Bow boys’ tennis team, made one of the deepest local runs by a local doubles pairing in the NHIAA tournament in years.
Carter, a junior, and Ethan, a freshman, are homeschooled. That hasn’t stopped them from being part of a strong Falcons squad that reached the Division II team semifinals.
As the team’s No. 1 doubles pairing, they had a 14-4 record, including playoffs. They entered the state doubles tournament unseeded.
Each win was a bigger upset and tighter than the last. On their way to the semifinals they beat Exeter’s Owen Russel/Coco Pazourek (8-6), No. 8 Souhegan’s Brian Goddard/Parker Schade (8-6) and No. 4 Winnacunnet’s David Cuceu/Chris Berry (9-7).
In the state semis, they met another pairing of brothers that outlasted them and eventually became champions. Alex Molda and Aaron Molda of St. Thomas Aquinas beat the Halls (7-6; 6-0) and were crowned doubles champions.
The two will come back for another season and a shot at the state doubles title next year. With a strong core returning for Bow, the future looks bright.
Q: What’s something people don’t see behind the scenes that helped you become successful? – Thomas Saysaw, Concord Track and Field
Carter: Both of us are out on the court every day throughout the season. One huge advantage of playing together is that we always have a partner to hit with, so even outside of practice we are able to get in a little extra practice, which goes a long way in sports.
Ethan: Putting in the work each and every day helps me be able to show up in the big moments and perform to the best of my ability.
Q: How did the two of you get into tennis?
Carter: My dad played college tennis, so I always grew up around it. I started playing competitive tennis during my sophomore year, when I was talked into picking it up, and have played ever since.
Q: What was it like making a deep run in the team playoffs?
Ethan: Making a deep run in the playoffs was all we could have asked for. We had already put in all the hard work, it was just time to show what we had learned.
Q: How did you continue winning in the doubles tournament to make it to the semifinals?
Carter: Continuing to win throughout the doubles tournament was an amazing feeling. All three of our wins were extremely close, and in one of our matches, we managed to fight off 3 match points before eventually pulling through. In all 4 matches, we had points that didn’t go our way, but we would quickly talk over what we needed to do differently so that we could give it our best in every point.
Ethan: We continued to win in the doubles tournament simply because we were there for each other when the other one missed their shot.
Q: What helps the two of you stay focused?
Ethan: What helps us stay focused during each match and throughout the whole season is knowing that we are competing for us as a team, our family, our coaches, our friends, and most of all that we are playing this sport to glorify God and spread His message through our actions and our words.