Moving around the court with ease and hitting her shots with poise and precision, Co-Captain Adèle Bernhard ’14 won the last match of her Andover squash career with a low crosscourt rail.
Over the weekend, Andover Girls Squash finished out its season with a seventh place finish out of 16 top New England teams at the annual Interscholastics tournament at Groton.
Co-Captain Madeleine Mayhew ’15 opened up with a five-game victory over her Groton opponent. After dominating the first game 11-3, Mayhew dropped the second 5-11 and the third 10-12 before staving off her opponent in the fourth and the fifth games for 11-8 and 11-7 wins.
“I really had to push myself mentally and physically to stay calm,” said Mayhew. “Despite how tired I was, [I was able] to persevere and complete the match.”
Though Mayhew fell to a Nobles player in the eighth round of Division II, she closed off her next three games to secure a fifth place finish, the highest of any Andover competitor in the tournament.
In Division III, Camille Price ’15 lost early on in four games against her St. Paul’s opponent.
Price, undeterred, won the first game of the consolation tournament in a smooth three games against the third-seed player from Hotchkiss, never allowing her opponent more than seven points.
In her third game of the day, Price won in three against a Groton opponent to whom she had fallen 2-1 in the regular season.
She went on to lose in the round of four of the consolation tournament, but won her final game against Miss Porter’s School for an eighth place finish.
Price said, “The key for our success at [Interschols] was not only the hard technical training we have done throughout the course of the season… what often distinguished us from our opponents was the team’s fitness and mental toughness that we have been practicing through the winter.”
No Andover competitor finished lower than 12th in the tournament, including five top-eight finishes from Mayhew (fifth), Claire Kister ‘16 (sixth), Emma Crowe ’15 (seventh), Price (eighth) and Misha Hooda ’14 (eighth) from Divisions II, VI, V, III and VII, respectively. Andover’s seventh place finish continues the upward trend the team has enjoyed the last three seasons, as it finished ninth last year and 13th the year before.
“I am so proud of the team,” said Mayhew. “The way [Coach Jennifer] Elliott looked at us summed it up. We lived up to — or one could even say surpassed — expectations. It is so exciting for our program.”
After losing the first two games in the final event of her Andover career, Hooda played what she described as “two of the best games I have ever played.”
“Just before the second game, I was coached by Coach Elliott and Emma Crowe, and I realized I had absolutely nothing to lose in this game. Walking back on court, I was focused like never before,” she said.
Hooda won her third game but lost her fourth against Nobles. “Even though I lost, I am proud of my last game and know that it was only so rewarding because I had my entire team behind me… I will never forget the memories we have made on and off the court,” said Hooda.
