5/16 – Andover: 5, Groton: 0
5/17 – Andover: 5, Hotchkiss: 1
5/20 – Andover: 8, Exeter: 1
Girls Tennis (14–0) took home the trophy from the NEPSAC Championships on Sunday. The team won the event in 2024. It picked up its ninth sweep of the season in the semi-finals on Saturday, beating Groton 5–0. Following a commanding victory, the team subsequently matched up against Hotchkiss in the finals, winning with a 5–1 victory against Hotchkiss. However, the season still had more to offer with a victory against Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter) on Wednesday, where it won 8–1.
Co-Captain Evelyn Kung ’26 and Lara Madan ’27 employed poaching — moving to the center of the court to hit a ball in the air before it travels to their partner — in their doubles match against Hotchkiss in the championship. Kung noted how she was proud of the duo’s execution.
“I want to shout out my doubles partner, Lara, and also myself, because we played our best doubles match ever. We were poaching everything, and Lara was having some issues with her returns, so I was taking every deuce, and Lara was absolutely slamming the balls at them from the net,” said Kung.
With the championship on the line, it all came down to a doubles match for Mira Phan ’27 and Nitya Madduri ’28. Michelle Oh ’29 reflected on the tension while watching the match.
“Mira and Nitya did really well in the doubles match. They were the last match on, and we all congregated on the courts to come and watch them. They were in a super tight match with their opponents. The doubles for Hotchkiss were really good, and we’ve had pretty easy wins for doubles all season, but this one was our hardest doubles match against a team. They were going into lots of long rallies and really long volley points, which was unusual, but I think that Mira and Nitya played well, and they handled their situation calmly. And they went into a super tiebreak after losing one game, which was stressful,” said Oh.
Oh explained that leading up to the championship, the team worked on maintaining its focus and not getting overconfident, all while emphasizing doubles performance.
“Focus was a big thing leading into NEPSACs because we were approaching the end of the season, nearing finals, and the end of the term, and we needed to really keep our focus up because we were on such a long winning streak. We didn’t want to become relaxed. We also put a lot of focus on doubles continuing from last year,” said Oh.
Approaching the end of the season, Mercan Draman ’26 explained her emotions during her final week playing tennis at Andover and emerging victorious in the NEPSAC Championships.
“We had just won NEPSACs this weekend, so I feel like I was more emotional at that, so all my emotions were done by today, but I was still really sad at the end of my match. It was nostalgic mostly, and then my coach and I hugged, and we were showing our appreciation for each other, ” said Draman.
