Migyu Kim ’25 hits a backhand against her opponent.
Friday 2/2 – Andover: 8, Brooks: 0
Tuesday 2/6 – Andover: 2, St. Paul’s: 5
Wednesday 2/7 – Andover: 7, Middlesex: 0
After sweeping Brooks on Friday, Andover Girls Squash (7-4) was presented with the opportunity to attend a Saturday workshop with a Harvard Women’s Squash alumna. Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Andover fell to St. Paul’s and defeated Middlesex, respectively. Girls Squash was tested with three matches occurring between Friday and Wednesday.
Going into Friday’s game against Brooks, Prisha Shivani ’26 noted that the team felt confident in its ability to defeat its opponents. Despite this, Shivani discussed the importance of staying concentrated and stable during these matches.
“For Brooks, I think we went in to [it] knowing that we were a bit stronger than them. But even when you’re playing strong [players] or players that are weaker than you, it’s important to keep the basics in mind… So, a lot of us focused on one thing, just honing down on one thing to focus on during the matches,” said Shivani.
According to Liz Zhao ’24, on Saturday, the team attended a session with Harvard Women’s Squash graduate Eleonore Evans, where Andover players had the chance to workshop their skills, then play against one another.
Zhao said, “We worked with her mostly on fundamentals, training our basic shots and then doing some match play amongst ourselves. I think this translated into a better idea of strategy going into these matches, and more familiarity with each other’s games.”
Three days after the workshop, the team played St. Paul’s at home. Shivani made note of her teammate Evelyn Kung ’26’s endurance and determination during her match.
Shivani said, “She did lose the first two, but it was really close. And I was really impressed with her because in the third game, she came back and won it.”
This mental discipline was also displayed by Co-Captain Migyu Kim ’25 in Wednesday’s match against Middlesex. Kim had a close match and did not let small mistakes affect her play.
Zhao said, “She displayed amazing mental fortitude after she won the second game… Migyu was able to beat her opponent with some amazing shot choices and made far [fewer] errors.”
According to Co-Captain Christina Yen ’24, Andover plans to focus on improving its reaction times in the upcoming weeks.
Yen said, “Squash is a sport where you’re playing in an enclosed space, so if your reactions to the ball are a bit off, it will affect your spacing and timing… We’re a little rusty in regards to reading and reacting [to] the flow of the game, so that’s one area that we all will definitely need to work on.”
Girls Squash will play at NEISA on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
