Captain Adele Bernhard ’14 carried Andover Squash in its two most recent matches against Milton Academy on Friday and St. Paul’s School on Wednesday with two convincing victories.
Bernhard’s win against St. Paul’s was especially noteworthy because her opponent, a recruit from Singapore, had recently beaten Deerfield’s number one seed and fifth-ranked player in the nation.
“Adele had a particularly good match against her opponent at St. Paul’s, whom she previously lost to at the beginning of the season. It was great for her to be able to come back and beat her. She executed her mental game well and persevere to come back and win her match,” said Jessica Lee ’13.
Though Bernhard was able to find success, the team as a whole struggled. Andover fell to Milton 6-1 and to St. Paul’s 5-2.
The loss to Milton was particularly disappointing because Andover had expected tight competition after the two finished similarly at Nationals two weeks earlier.
At Nationals, Milton finished in fourth place while Andover came in fifth. However, three key Andover players were missing because of illness and injury on Friday, a major factor of the loss.
On Wednesday, Andover turned up its game a bit, securing two wins rather than one, but still fell to St. Paul’s in a series of nail-biting matches.
Aside from Bernhard, Tafarii McKenzie ’12 stepped into the fifth seed and took Andover’s only other victory of the day.
Lee fought a close five-game match, but could not pull out a win in the end.
“Jessica [Lee] had a really close match, and I hope she gets to play her opponent at New Englands next weekend,” said Bernhard.
Andover will play today for a chance to redeem itself against Groton School.