Lydia Smith ’09 spectacularly won three weekend matches to capture seventh place finish in the 2nd bracket at Interschols. Although the top three players on Andover Girls Squash all placed within the top ten in their respective brackets, the team finished the weekend ranked 15th out of the 16 total teams. Joining Smith in recording top ten finishes were Captain Carolyn Brown ’09 and Lauren Wilmarth ’09. Brown took tenth place in the first bracket and Wilmarth, playing in the third bracket, came in ninth. Captain Brown commented, “Strong teams usually have a good top three, so it’s really impressive that our top three did so well in their brackets.” Smith won three out of their five matches to place seventh at the number two position. Wilmarth lost her first match and won her second. She again fell during her third match but finished up the weekend strongly, winning her last two matches. After Captain Brown lost her first match in three games, she came back to win her second match. Captain Brown’s impressive victory avenged a loss to her competitor earlier in the season. Although Captain Brown lost her third match in three games, she pulled through in an impressive fourth match to advance to a match for 9th place. However, Captain Brown lost her fifth and final match of the tournament in a heartbreaking five games. Lizzy Chan ’08 also took tenth place in the sixth bracket. Chan won two of her matches over the weekend. Nicole Duddy ’08 came in twelfth in the fourth bracket. After losing her first match, Duddy won her second, but could not pull through to win any more matches. Andover put forward a strong effort throughout the tournament. The team truly displayed the progress it has made so far this season, using their command of the serve and their intelligent shot selection. Although Andover’s final result of 15th place didn’t match the team’s hopes, the team quickly recognized the positives of the season. Wilmarth said, “I think we’ve improved a lot this season. We fought really hard and our scores at Interschols don’t justly portray how strong our team is.” Captain Brown added, “We’re a very young team, and we were inexperienced at the beginning of the season, but we have improved tremendously since then.” Ultimately, Andover’s match time and experience proved to be valuable this year and with only two seniors graduating, the team looks hopeful for next year. Captain Brown concludes, “I really think we can take everything we’ve learned this year to have an even better season next year.”
