MANCHESTER — The Hanover High boys’ tennis team fell short in its pursuit of perfection and a second-straight championship after losing to rival Bedford in the NHIAA Division I final, 6-3, at the Mark Ouellette Tennis Courts at Southern New Hampshire University on Wednesday.

This match was a reversal of fortunes from the regular season. In their April contest, the matchup came down to doubles, which the Bears swept.

Hanover would need a sweep again on Wednesday after falling behind 4-2 in the singles matches. But this time, the Bulldogs' pairs pulled out the wins they needed to hoist the hardware.

“It’s always going to be tough and close against Bedford, and we knew that coming in. They just played a little bit better than us today,” said Bears’ head coach Kelly Finn. “We had some good matches. We got down after the singles, which I think was unexpected, and were very close to still coming back, but it just didn’t go our way today.”

Seniors Sam Ames and Ian Holmes notched victories in the final singles matches of their careers to keep the Bears’ hopes for a repeat alive. Both Ames and Holmes worked their way back from deficits for the wins, Holmes fending off multiple match points in the sweltering heat.

“The fight was definitely there. There was a lot of toughness, a lot of fight, it was nice to see,” said Finn.

Unfortunately for Hanover, its comeback was not to be. The Bears’ duo of freshman Quinn O’Regan and sophomore Ben Pearson were the lone doubles team to win in what turned out to be an inconsequential match.

Ames said this season, which up until Wednesday had included an unblemished record and 12 sweeps, is something he and his teammates should be proud of.

Still, he acknowledged the sting of falling short.

“This will go down as a Bedford championship,” Ames said. “It doesn’t really matter that we were undefeated; what matters is the championship.”

The senior captain said this experience would be helpful for underclassmen teammates who still have seasons left to play.

“I hope for the guys next year that they’ll know that the championship is different,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the regular season; it’s a different environment.”

Looking towards the future, the Bears will lose four of their six singles players from Wednesday’s title matches, including Ames, Holmes, Alex Orsino, and Ryder Wilson, to graduation.

Finn, who will head into her fourth year as head coach next season and has been to a title game each of her first three seasons, was confident in the talent that will reload her roster.

“I feel pretty good about it. We still have six that aren’t seniors that are going to be here, and we have some strong JV players that I expect will be coming up next year,” she said. “I think they will be able to fill the shoes, and it will be a rebuilding year, but not from scratch.”

Michael Coughlin Jr. can be reached at mcoughlin@vnews.com