Friday 1/19 – Andover: 7, Noble and Greenough School: 0
Saturday 1/20 – Andover: 1, Hotchkiss: 6
Saturday 1/20 – Andover: 6, Hopkins: 1
This weekend, Andover Boys Squash (9-1) had a shut-out against Noble and Greenough (Nobles). During its dual match versus Hotchkiss School and Hopkins, Andover suffered its first loss and came out victorious, respectively.
Starting the weekend off with Nobles, Alexander Yang ’26 spoke on playing with power and determination regardless of its opponents.
Yang said, “I think Nobles is a pretty easy one, but we didn’t want to drop any games so I think we were just mentally prepared to play a hard game as we would… I think we were all mentally locked in, ready to play our normal game no matter what.”
Yang continued to applaud the team’s performancet. He recalled each player giving their teammates feedback between matches, which helped them secure this victory.
“Everyone played pretty well and everyone fought hard and we got the results that we wanted… I think everyone is pretty close to each other because we are such a small team. We would always coach whoever we were refereeing between games and tell them what they weren’t doing well enough and how they could improve,” said Yang.
Although Andover had an amazing game against Nobles, they suffered a loss to Hotchkiss, 6-1. However, after this game, Andover bounced back to defeat Hopkins 6-1.
Co-Captain Cristian Graziano ’25 reflected on Andover’s first loss against Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss ended its last season sixth at the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Championship and ninth at Nationals in Top Division.
“Hotchkiss was our biggest match of the season, pretty much putting everything we had into it. All the matches building up to it, Hotchkiss was our climax. Especially with Hotchkiss, we knew we were the underdogs by quite a bit, so we were getting ready to go out there and fight. We knew it would be an uphill battle. We prepared for it and we had trained for it leading up to the match,” said Graziano.
Corey Shen ’26 recalled the team’s anticipation for playing against Hotchkiss. Despite the loss, Andover prepared to overtake Hopkins with optimism.
Shen said, “For Hotchkiss, we knew this would be one of our toughest matches probably in our Andover careers. We knew that every match would be heavily contested and no match would be a walkover. In the end, I believe we got a bit unlucky with some of the results but [we have] a lot to learn from. For Hopkins, the main challenge was after we lost to Hotchkiss, I think that was a bit demoralizing and so we had to hype each other up and just move on to the next match.”
Shen elaborated on Andover’s shortcomings against Hotchkiss. Shen noted different ways the teams intended to improve their play for Nationals and NEPSAC.
Shen stated, “Going into an unfamiliar setting and court, we thought some of our lengths weren’t ideal. A lot of the time they were popping off the side wall or bounce out too much or just being too short and we got punished for that. Lengths are just like backcourts, like our rails or crosses. So that is a major focus for the next few weeks and we are prepping for Nationals and New Englands.”
Graziano emphasized the major focus of the season, which is getting a high ranking for Nationals. Graziano applauded the team for their unconditional support on Saturday, throughout the loss.
“Focusing and bouncing back. We have got a really strong team this year and we are trying to clinch the eighth seed at Nationals, so we just have to finish up the year pretty strong… Obviously it is a team sport, we were just all there for each other after a hard loss, the first loss of the season, so we had each other’s backs and tried to help each other bounce back,” said Graziano.
Andover Boys Squash will play away against Choate, Westminster, and Belmont Hill on Saturday.
