Sports

Boys Squash Dominates Exeter; Co-Captain Will Walter ’03 Leads

The Boys’ Squash team dominated this week, easily defeating three foes. Saturday, the team left at noon to begin what turned out to be a 7-hour trip to Belmont Hill to play Choate and Westminster Co-Captain Will Walter ’03 at #2 was the first to step on court with his Choate opponent, and quickly took the lead. He kept it throughout and managed a relatively easy three-gamer, 9-0, 9-3, 9-1. David Morse ’04 and Jeff Wessler ’03 both won easily with identical scores 9-3, 9-1, 9-0. Co-Captain Will Simonton ’03 won a quick three gamer, having the easiest match. Elliot Beck ’05, playing at #3, managed to win against a tough opponent who out up a fight in the second game, with a score of 9-2, 9-7, 9-0. Following this match, freshman Dan Wagman pulled through with a 3-1 victory. Wagman won the first game fairly easily, but his opponent improved his play to take a 9-6 win in the second game. Wagman, however, regained his composure and dominated the next two games to assure himself a victory. All the matches in this second round were against Choate, the stronger of the two opponents, although no match for the Big Blue. In the third round, Andover played Westminster. Harry Goldstein ’05, playing at #7, had what was unquestionably the match of the day, a tough 5-game win over his opponent. Both players were good, but Goldstein pulled through with a 9-6, 7-9, 9-6, 8-10, 9-4 victory. The only loss against this Westminster team was at the #1 spot, where Simonton had a tough match against another 4-year varsity player Shawn Cardoza ’03. In a quick 9-3, 9-1, 9-4 win, Cardoza restored a lot of his team’s pride, showing that, although Andover was doing well, they could never get too confident. It had been a good day for the Andover team, and, as Goldstein said upon leaving, “We had a lot of interruptions with the fire alarm going early, and the lights turning off during the match, and the fire alarm almost going off again. But even so, we pulled off some good wins, and we’re looking forward to Wednesday’s Exeter match.” Wednesday started well against Exeter, with Andover clinching the win early. All the quick matches were first, which was great because the suspense felt in the two tough wins wasn’t enough to really be worried about. Goldstein lost the first game, 9-5 but he then picked up the pace, beginning to understand his opponent’s game, and came through to win a tough second game. Goldstein managed to win the next two for an Andover victory. Wagman had an even tougher match, beginning with a close 10-8 loss in the first game. Afterwards, he lost the second 9-2. It is very tough for a player to be down 2-0 and come back, but Wagman did, winning in 5 after thoroughly trouncing his opponent in the last two games. All in all, Andover played three great matches this week and managed to really strengthen their confidence and their reputation as a great team. Although it is hard not to be a good sport while winning, Andover’s great sportsmanship was demonstrated when both Wagman and Morse got sportsmanship awards in an official Massachusetts Squash Racquets Organization tournament where only five awards were handed out a few weeks ago.