Sports

Girls Squash Swept by Loomis, Then Convincingly Victorious over Tabor

Despite the challenges of quarantine the first week and off practices, Andover Girls Squash put up a fight against Loomis Chaffee on Saturday falling 0-7, then defeated Tabor Academy on Wednesday with a final score of 6-1. Its record now stands at 2-2.

According to Migyu Kim ’25, a great majority of the team’s success came from the bond they have with one another. Although its games were on the road, its morale and spirit did not waver because of this connection the players had created with one another.

“From our two away matches, just like traveling with them [the team] definitely even brought us closer…the energy was all really good and it was just a really supportive environment,” said Kim.

Karen Wang ’23 shared a similar sentiment to Kim, believing that the environment and atmosphere are essential aspects of the game and ultimately contribute to improved overall success.

I think we all did very [well] and tried hard. I loved how every[one] cheered for each other. When I was playing my match, I felt even more motivated to win because of my teammate’s support and encouragement,” Wang wrote in an email to The Phillipian

While holding team spirit and great sportsmanship in high regard, the team did do much work on the physical aspect of its game in the week leading up to the matches, specifically improving stamina by means of conditioning, according to Liz Zhao ’24.

Zhao said, “We were doing a lot of conditioning, we did like…to get ourselves back in shape. And we did a lot of drilling and I’m pretty sure we’re all in pretty good shape to take on a lot of matches.” 

Kim noted how despite squash being an individually played sport, the team builds camaraderie as it seeks to balance out competition with connection. 

Kim said, “I think that just like sometimes you know because we’re all like competing against each other because you know squash is an individual sport but also like building on teamwork is just like finding that balance too because sometimes between two members it can get a bit competitive but I think that our team specifically has like a really good dynamic and a really good relationship and just continuing to build that and maintain that positive sportsmanship. 

According to Zhao, in addition to continuing its conditioning, the team will try to improve upon skills and techniques as well as implement new strategies and learn to execute them.

“There’s always like specific shots that we like to work on or game mindsets. For example, sometimes we want to focus on not thinking about the score and just thinking about how to play the best squash that we can or we want to think about how to attack better and play more aggressive shots in order to get our opponents to panic and run more,” said Zhao.

Andover looks to learn from this week as it faces off against Phillips Exeter Academy this Saturday at home.

Editor’s Note: Karen Wang ’23 is an Associate Graphic Design Editor for The Phillipian.