Opening the week with a sweep against Groton, Andover Girls Squash were unable to carry the momentum into its match against Noble & Greenough. Despite a valiant effort, the team lost in a nail-biter against Nobles, 4-3 on Wednesday. Andover’s record now stands at 7-4.
According to Co-Captain Migyu Kim ’25, Andover constantly provides effort and energy, no matter the skill of its opponents. While high in confidence heading into the match against Groton, Andover remained humble, and maintained a high level of play through each match.
“I think that in general, the team is really strong when they are playing opponents who they are better than, just staying strong themselves and fighting. They’re not really dipping their level at all and just playing good squash and playing good shots. So just keeping your own level and dominating the court,” Kim said.
Co-Captain Karen Wang ’23 commended the team’s support on Friday in its matches against Groton. With several matches coming down to the wire, it was critical for teammates to provide encouragement to further push Andover towards victory.
Wang said, “I think for Groton, we did a really good job cheering each other on and supporting each other. There were a lot of close matches and close calls. Throughout the matches, everyone was very supportive. It was like we were able to pull through.”
Kim noted that despite the many promising signs from the match against Groton, one area the team still needs to improve upon is dealing with high pressure situations. Against stronger opponents, Andover will face many more critical points in its matches, making it an incredibly important area to improve upon.
Kim said, “I think that in terms of weaknesses or areas to improve on, we started talking about the mental aspect of the game and how to deal with situations under pressure a little bit better, how to improve our work through moments where you’re stressed or uncertain about how the match is going to go. We started working on that for the rest of the season.”
According to Christina Yen ’24, the team looked to address this problem in practice by doing “pressure sessions.” These helped players improve their play during intense moments in a match, but they also improved endurance and tactics.
“We did what we call pressure sessions. That means, that one person can hit anywhere they want and a person has to return to a certain circle or a return to a certain place. So basically, we’re just really focusing on improving our endurance, which pressure sessions made happen. I think in some ways it also was good and about improving our focus,” said Yen.
When playing Nobles, the team was focused on testing out different strategies during matches. Specifically, the team tried to incorporate a variety of shots into its matches, forcing its opponents to stay on their toes.
“For today’s match, we were focusing on hitting. We played condition games that focused on certain things. You should be paying attention to all hits. For example, only hitting the ball short once. And that helps us think about different strategies with some play while competing against other players. You might suffer from deep shots,” said Wang.
Andover will face Middlesex away next Wednesday.
