In its final match of the season, Andover Girls Squash travelled to the New England Interscholastic Squash Championships and placed eighth out of 16 teams. Andover went into the tournament with positive momentum after sweeping Exeter 7-0. Interschols was split up into divisions: the number one player on the ladder played in Division 1, the second player on the ladder competed in Division 2 and so on. The team was projected to finish in ninth place in the tournament after posting a 7-6 record in the regular season. “Even though the team finished better than expected, I feel like we weren’t 100 percent mentally ready for the match. We could have played better and finished much closer to the top,” said Claire Kister ’16. “Most people finished better than eighth in their divisions, but some better results in the first round would have allowed us to finish closer to fifth or sixth place,” she added. As is expected in an end of the season tournament, Andover went up against some of the best competition in New England. Teams like Greenwich, which placed first, Deerfield, Nobles and Groton prevented Andover from placing highly in the tournament. Andover accomplished its goal of finishing in the top eight, falling short of seventh place by just one point. In Division 1, Co-Captain Adele Bernhard ’14 lost her first round match and ended up outside the top eight, as did Kister in Division 5 and Misha Hooda ’14 in Division 7. Madeleine Mayhew ’14, who played in Division 2, was one of two players to win her first round match. Mayhew finished in eighth place. In Division 3, Co-Captain Jessica Lee ’13 ended the tournament in seventh place during her final match for Andover. Camille Price ’15 had the best ranking of any Andover player at sixth place in Division 4, and Emma Crowe ’15 ranked seventh in Division 6. Crowe won her first match but fell in the next round. The team advanced farther in the tournament than it has in the last four years. “The tournament was a fantastic and rewarding way to end the season,” said Lee. “I was so proud of all of the girls on our team, and I will miss competing with them next year.”
