4/18 – Andover: 3, Belmont Hill: 4
4/19 – Andover: 6, Deerfield: 1
On Friday, Boys Tennis (5-2) lost a narrow match to Belmont Hill, and on Saturday, it came back in a dominant performance against Deerfield. An unfamiliar environment played a role in Friday’s loss, and it now moves, with the momentum of a commanding victory facing Deerfield, toward another competitive stretch of games on Friday.
George Richardson ’27 discussed the team’s preparation leading to its matchup against Belmont Hill, which focused primarily on recovery after a series of four subsequent matches.
“Something that we worked on a lot throughout the week [prior to facing Belmont Hill] was recovery. We had played four games, [on] Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. So, we decided to have a break on Thursday and really focus on our own health before going into our Deerfield and Belmont Hill matches. That was really important because, had we not done so, it would’ve been a lot to handle physically,” said Richardson.
Additionally, Jacob Pletka ’27 praised Co-Captain Kevin Niu ’25 for his rallying performance early on facing Belmont Hill.
Pletka said, “Right as we got out for our singles matches, Kevin started off guns-blazing. He was on fire. He won the first five games in five minutes, and that just gave a lot of people motivation. When Kevin came out and started playing really well, that gave us some motivation to try and stick with it, even though we lost.”
Belmont Hill’s indoor tennis courts, according to Ben Shin ’26, are notoriously quick, which took the team time to adjust. Shin also discussed the team’s lacking readiness for its matches.
“So, that was one of the factors we had to keep in mind going to Belmont Hill because we knew that the courts would be really fast. But even though we knew, it took a lot of time adjusting, and frankly, it just took too long to adjust in order to capitalize. But I think we were just not prepared enough — we weren’t as focused as we could’ve been,” said Shin
Pletka described the winning mentality the team carried into their dominant victory over Deerfield, which was initially undefeated.
“We all put a little bit more energy into it because we played Friday afternoon from 5:oo to 8:oo p.m. iI was just late in the day, and everybody’s sort of a little bit just relieved that it’s the end of the week. But when Saturday came along, we all sort of had this mindset, we’re going to put it all out on the court and then have our three-day weekend from there,” said Pletka.
Against Deerfield, the team had come off of two losses, against Roxbury Latin and Belmont Hill. Therefore, they were in search of a win. To achieve a victory, Shin noted, the team, primarily led by Niu, boosted its morale.
Shin said, “We really wanted to try and win 7-0. Mainly, our morale was something that really helped us in the first point of Kevin’s match in doubles. I remember him telling the team that he was going to let out the loudest yell to really show our team morale early on. That kind of early confidence was something that helped us out.”
Boys Tennis starts another set of back-to-back games on Friday, starting with Groton before playing St. John’s Prep and Saturday.
