{"id":216614,"date":"2026-06-11T17:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216614\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:25:13","slug":"bethlehem-ready-for-trip-to-nysphsaa-boys-team-tennis-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216614\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem ready for trip to NYSPHSAA boys’ team tennis championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Keating, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 2 singles player and co-captain, during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem boys tennis head coach Steve Smith during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. His team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem boys tennis head coach Steve Smith during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. His team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Keating, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 2 singles player and co-captain, during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Jacob<\/p>\n

Jacob Lyubarov, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 1 singles player and co-captain, during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Jacob<\/p>\n

Jacob Lyubarov, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 1 singles player and co-captain,\u00a0during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem boys tennis head coach Steve Smith during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. His team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem boys tennis head coach Steve Smith during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. His team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The Bethlehem boys tennis team warms up before a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The Bethlehem boys tennis team warms up before a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The Bethlehem boys tennis team warms up before a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The Bethlehem boys tennis team warms up before a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union<\/p>\n

DELMAR \u2014 For this season\u2019s Bethlehem boys\u2019 tennis team to continue its run as Section 2\u2019s preeminent large school program, it was going to take a lot of players succeeding as they stepped into newer, more prominent roles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the Eagles got.<\/p>\n

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Coach Steve Smith\u2019s team entered the 2026 season needing to replace 10 seniors \u2014 including the squad\u2019s top three singles players \u2014 who graduated from the Eagles\u2019 2025 squad that won the Section 2 Class AA championship<\/a> and reached the Division I state final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what we were,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

It took some growing pains, but Bethlehem is right back at the standard that Smith\u2019s program has set. The Eagles won the Section 2 Class AA title for the seventh time in the last eight tournaments, and they\u2019re state semifinalists again as they\u2019ll face three-time defending champion Syosset on Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing.<\/p>\n

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The Eagles\u2019 two captains, Jacob Lyubarov and Jack Keating, played a large role in the team reaching this point. Last year, Keating and Lyubarov were the No. 4 and No. 5 singles players in the Bethlehem lineup. This year, they\u2019ve been moved to the top.<\/p>\n

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\"Jacob<\/p>\n

Jacob Lyubarov, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 1 singles player and co-captain, during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to play some of the top players in the section,\u201d Lyubarov said. \u201cWe held our own, and I think that really motivated the other guys that they could step up as well in meaningful ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJacob Lyubarov and Jack Keating, just tremendous leaders,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey knew the task at hand was going to be big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting past perennial rival Shaker for the sectional title was particularly satisfying for the Eagles.<\/p>\n

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Bethlehem dropped a 5-4 match to Shaker during the regular season, meaning the Eagles entered the sectional tournament as the No. 2 seed, but the postseason meeting went Bethlehem\u2019s way, with a 7-2 win<\/a> clinching a third straight area title.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys really stepped up and did what they needed to do in some close matches,\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n

This is the third straight year Bethlehem has reached the state semifinals. Each year so far, the Eagles have run into Syosset in New York City. Bethlehem fell to Syosset in the 2024 state semifinals and in last year\u2019s championship match.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Keating, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 2 singles player and co-captain, during a practice on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Delmar, NY. The team will travel to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to compete in the state semifinals against Syosset, of Section 8. (Jim Franco\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Jim Franco\/Times Union<\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper, they look like the better team,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut, that\u2019s our mission. We\u2019re not going to pay attention to what\u2019s on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since the introduction of state playoffs for team tennis in 2022, Bethlehem has reached the final four in Flushing four times in five years.<\/p>\n

Glens Falls, the Section 2 Class B champion, is also headed to Flushing for Friday\u2019s state tournament. The Black Bears will face Byram Hills in a Division 2 semifinal at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

The state tournament tweaks the match format to what Bethlehem is used to during the Section 2 season. Where Bethlehem spends most of the season playing matches that include six singles and three doubles matchups, the state tournament flips the script to three singles and four doubles.<\/p>\n

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Smith, along with assistant coach and \u201cdoubles guru\u201d Dylan Davis, begin preparing the Eagles for that format change well in advance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat week heading into team sectionals,\u201d Smith said, \u201cwe start to mix up the practices and have more doubles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Keating, the Bethlehem boys tennis No. 2 singles player and co-captain, during a practice on Wednesday, June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1216,153,155,154,86083,1215,296,726],"class_list":["post-216614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-alco","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-hs-other-spring","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}