Andover Girls Tennis shut out rival Phillips Exeter Academy 9-0 last Saturday. Despite the one-sided score, Andover battled through nine tight matches, four of which went to third set tiebreakers. “It’s always a good match up with Exeter,” said Coach Martha Grant, who said that she led her team into the match with the mindset that every opponent deserves equal effort. With Co-Captain Eliza Flynn ’10 still sidelined due to injury, Fay Feghali ’12 moved up to play the first singles position. Feghali rallied to an easy 6-3 victory in the first set. Despite falling 2-6 in the second, she came out on top 7-5 in the third set which secured an overall victory. Katherine Lee ’13 took the court in the second singles position and won in two quick sets, 6-2, 6-2. Elizabeth Kelly ’11 and Co-Captain Stacia Vladimirova ’11 also won two easy sets in the third and fourth singles positions, respectively. Kelly beat her opponent 6-4, 6-3, while Vladimirova won 6-1, 6-1. MJ Engel ’13 fought through a tougher three-set match in the fifth singles position. Her opponent came out strong in the first set, beating her 6-3, but she composed herself and came back with intensity. Engel tied up the match with a 6-1 win in the second match, and pulled out another 7-5 victory for an overall win. Borkeny Sambou ’12 added to the team score, winning 6-3, 6-4 in the sixth singles position. Kelly and Vladimirova took on Exeter in the first doubles spot with no problem, winning both sets, 6-2, 6-3. In the second doubles position, Lee and Engel played against very evenly matched opponents. The two lost their first match 2-6, but tied up the match with a 6-3 second-set win. The duo then went to a tie-breaking third set, and they rallied to an 8-6 win. Feghali and Midori Ishizuka ’11 also fell in their first set, but didn’t let up after that. The two went on to win 6-2 in the second, and pulled out a 9-7 victory in the third set. With its win over Exeter, Andover improved to 6-1 on the season. The team will square off against Milton this Saturday.
