Corey Shen ’26 reaches for the ball.
1/11 – Andover: 2, Choate/Taft: 5
1/13 – Andover: 7, Brooks: 0
1/15 – Andover: 5, McCallie TN: 2
On Saturday, Boys Squash (3-4) traveled to Wallingford last Saturday in their annual matchup against Choate and The Taft School. Despite a hard fight, Boys Squash fell short, losing to both Choate and Taft. The following Monday, Boys’ Squash bounced back, sweeping Brooks for their first home meet of 2025, which was succeeded by a 5-2 victory on Wednesday against the McCallie School.
Corey Shen ’26 acknowledged that the match against Taft was difficult, considering Taft’s strong roster and the prospect of playing Choate immediately after. Although they lost 5-2 against Choate, Shen noted that it could have gone the other way, with the team losing some spark after the Taft match.
Shen said, “Against Taft, they were a much stronger opponent, so many of us were fighting an uphill battle. Especially because we knew we would play Choate right after that. It was also a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride, so we were really tired. In terms of effort and spirit, we did top-notch work and gave our all. Against Choate, we were lacking our edge and our fight; we lost 5-2, but we could have easily turned it around and we could have won 5-2 as well. It was an unfortunate loss to Choate, but Taft had a much stronger roster, and we knew that coming into the matches, so we just tried to do our best and try to win.”
Despite the losses, Franklin Kozol ’27 noted that they had some strong wins. He also added that due to some players resting during the Taft match, some lower-half players were able to gain experience.
Kozol said, “Taft was a rough game. We decided we were going to cut our losses and rest some guys for the Choate match. The matches we did win were good, hard-fought matches, but some that we lost were just things we need to fix in the future. Because of the resting at Taft, it was a great opportunity for people lower on the ladder to get some reps, so that was a great experience for me, and we showed what we could do.”
Following the loss, Kozol remarked that the match against Brooks served as a great confidence boost for the team. He expressed that it was especially gratifying to see Andover return to victory, particularly after their tough defeats on Saturday.
“Brooks was good; we had two people playing a challenge match, but it didn’t matter much. It was a good team win, and that was something we really needed. We were 1-4 going into it, and it was nice to see all blue on the board again,” said Kozol.
In their match against McCallie, Aaron Bai ’27 observed that the team showed improvement compared to earlier matches. He also mentioned that the performances provided valuable match experience for many players.
“We played pretty well. It was an improvement in match experience and match play compared to previous games against other schools. The performances in the games were pretty good, and we won the game 5-2,” said Bai.
Adding on to Bai, Shen mentioned that he was very happy with the team’s performances, especially due to how tight their match against McCallie was last year. He also added that the two losses during the match were great learning opportunities, as the players would be able to learn and grow from them.
Shen said, “We won, 5-2. I am very happy with the five who won. The two we lost were close and were a little unfortunate. It is always good to suffer a loss because it is easy to identify where we need to improve and grow. Especially since one of the players who lost was a freshman, they will definitely grow. McCallie is a strong school. When we played them last year, it was a really tight match, so we didn’t underestimate them. I am very happy we won.”
Bai noted that there are some places for improvement moving into the second half of the season. He believes that coming in with a good mindset and improving on fitness and technique are key areas of improvement.
“We will try to go into matches with a better mindset with the match experience from the first half of the season. We will have to be more stable and consistent going into the second half of the season. We obviously want to win more matches, and we are constantly improving as a team in terms of fitness and technique. Our team spirit has been good, and we hope to improve our performance,” said Bai.
