First seed Prianca Patel ’19 whipped the ball cross court towards the deep backhand corner to secure a 3-0 win in her match. Patel’s win was one of two victories for Andover Girls Squash in its 5-2 loss to Winsor on Wednesday. Andover’s record now stands at 3-1.
Patel said, “I really knew it was gonna be a tough match so I really trained hard this week and listened to [Head Coach Jennifer Elliott ’94] a lot. I really brought my A-game today.”
Andover’s second victory came from sixth seed Susan Yun ’17, who battled from a 2-1 deficit to beat her opponent in five games, winning the final game by a score of 11-2.
Yun said, “I just really wanted to stay on my toes and keep up my energy since it’s our first match since Winter Break. I just wanted to start off strong.”
Coach Elliott said, “Susan had an awesome match today. [It] was a huge mental victory for her to be able to come back and pull that one out. She made a bunch of adjustments in between games and it really paid off. It was a great win.”
Second seed Avery Westerfield ’18 won the first two games of her match, but dropped the last three games and ultimately lost the match 3-2.
Westerfield said, “I was just focused on winning the match, getting that victory so our team could get four out of seven.”
“In the first two games I went in really strong, I was really confident, and I beat [my opponent] consistently. Then in the middle of the third game I let it get to my head a little bit and I really fell out of that mindset,” continued Westerfield.
Despite the team loss, Andover is optimistic that it will be able to bounce back this weekend.
Coach Elliott said, “We have a few hard matches in front of us, so we’ll see how it goes. We’re thrilled about our good start, and we’re just gonna take it one match at a time. Every player worked very hard, and we’ve got things to work on and things we’re going to improve.”
Andover will look to implement improvements when it squares off against Taft, Loomis Chaffee, and rival Phillips Exeter Academy on Saturday.
Editor’s Note: Susan Yun is a News Editor for The Phillipian.
