Avery Lin ’25 played fourth in the lineup against Deerfield on Saturday.
Co-Captain Sean Winston-Luo ’24 plays his fourth season with Andover Boys Squash.
Saturday 12/9 – Andover: 4, Deerfield: 3
Wednesday 12/13 – Andover: 7, Milton: 0
This past Saturday, Andover Boys Squash squeezed out a tight win against Deerfield. The team went on to defeat Milton Academy on Wednesday, sweeping their opponents with seven wins out of seven matches. Boys Squash remains undefeated with a record of 3-0.
Andover’s intense competition with Deerfield served as motivation for the team, according to Co-Captain Sean Winston-Luo ’24. Unlike the previous year’s loss, Boys Squash was able to secure the victory.
Winston-Luo said, “I think it was a win or go home mentality. This is our biggest match of our season, so we knew we had to win, and Deerfield has always been a long time rival that we played really close matches with these last few years. So there’s definitely feeling some pressure to win, but I’m glad the team carried through in the end, pushed through a lot of the close points.”
Will Weissman ’25 highlighted the trust that members of the team have in one another’s commitment to the team. He noted that each player can easily support one another after matches even with an unfavorable outcome, knowing that everyone put their all into their respective matches.
“We’re always very supportive of each other, like after a match we all know we gave it our all. So, no one’s ever going to be disappointed with someone because they know they put in their best effort. So we’re always pretty encouraging to each other and before the match, we got brunch together, just [to] talk about our match ups and prepare mentally,” said Weissman.
Although Boys Squash secured a victory against Deerfield, Winston-Luo listed potential areas of improvement. He noted that many team members will be playing over the break.
Winston-Luo said, “We could be a little bit more attacking, sometimes we are a little defensive, but we’ll be working on that in practice. During break, a lot of us will be playing so we’ll be getting ready to gear up for the next match. We have some big matches coming up in January, so we’ll be getting ready for that.”
On Wednesday, Boys Squash swept Milton. Last year Andover didn’t drop a match against Milton, so this year, Pragun Seth ’25 shared that it was important for the team to uphold its dominance over Milton.
Seth said, “We were focused on playing our best. We knew that we had to defend our previous wins against Milton, so coming into our games we were really focused on taking it point by point.”
While squash is an individual sport, the team prioritizes supporting each other between matches. Through personalized feedback, Seth noted how the team helps players find their strengths and capitalize on them.
“Before matches we made sure to guide team members and really focus on their strengths and during matches we came to give guidance and support,” said Seth.
Andover will play Choate at home after the break.
