Despite having to face many difficulties including inconsistency and injuries, Andover Boys Squash persevered through The New England Tournament with one win and two losses.
According to Head Coach John Roberts, the team has recently been facing higher ranked opponents with considerable talent and passion. He believes that because of this, maintaining confidence has been a point of struggle for the team, which it will continue to improve upon during practice.
Coach Roberts said, “We’ve [been] playing opponents that are better than us on paper. We have had a hard time executing in games [throughout] 100 percent of the match. We get to a point about 80% through and we’re just getting to the finish line in a number of games and matches has proven a bit of a mental blockade. So I think this week we’ll be working a lot on just end of game tactics and short games.”
Avery Lin ’25 and Will Weissman ’25 highlight Christian Graziano ’25 and Sean Winston-Luo ’24 for their sportsmanship. Lin also notes how this sportsmanship and commendable behavior was consistent all throughout the team.
“I think sportsmanship was really good, especially with Christian Graziano and Sean [Winston-Luo]. I mean, our coaches say that they’re our role models for sportsmanship, and I think we conducted ourselves very well,” said Lin.
“Christian [was a] great role model on the court. And I think we all support each other. In between games, we kind of give each other good advice and try to help each other so we can win each match,” added Weissman.
Coach Roberts notes the numerous injuries the team has needed to adapt to. Despite such challenges, it was still able to put forth its best effort.
Roberts said, “We’re nursing on a few injuries at the moment and we have a pretty young team. So we’re playing strong opponents. The boys definitely went pretty deep to make the matches competitive, even though they weren’t necessarily at 100 percent. That wouldn’t have been the case it can be sometimes quite easy just to kind of give in and they definitely put up a good fight in matches where you know, they were on paper technically out-matched,”
Lin believes that his brother Aidan Lin ’23 played particularly well as he exhibited unrivaled consistency, ending with an undefeated record. Lin also notes that the team needs to continue this type of play.
“I think my brother Aidan Lin, he went undefeated and won a really important match in our half. And yeah, even though he’s in here for the third match, I thought he played really well. I mean, he’s always reliable and consistent during matches, which is something that’s kind of rare on our team,” said Lin.
Roberts stated that as a young team, there is a bright future for Boys Squash. He not only hopes to continue to foster the love of squash among inexperienced players but also has aspirations of finishing the season in the top 10.
“Obviously, we have a young team so it’s good to gain more experience in terms of like, our next match is Exeter at home so hopefully obviously we could result there. In terms of our result nationals. I’d like to try and just build on our finishing position from the prior year. So if we can get into the top 10 in the country this year will be kind of cool,”
Andover will look to defeat Exeter at home on Wednesday.
