After losing four Seniors, including the captain and the one, two, five and seven ranks, the 2008 Girls Varsity Squash team will look to new captain Carolyn Brown ’09 to lead them to success. The Andover Girls Varsity Squash team still expects to have yet another strong season. Returning to the team is Senior Lizzy Chan along with Uppers Captain Brown, Lydia Smith and Lauren Wilmarth. They’ll be joined by new Upper Christina Mommsen along with Nicole Wagner ’09, Christine Choi ’09 and Nicole Duddy ’08. The returners have shown strong leadership skills during the team’s first few matches of the season. The team had a strong performance last year, finishing seventh place out of 16 teams at Interschols, while also earning a 10th place finish at the National High School Team Championships. They ended their 2007 season with a respectable record of 9-8. After five games and only two wins, the team has had a somewhat sluggish start to their season. Andover lost its first game of the season 2-5, to powerhouse St. George’s. However, Andover was seemingly unscathed by their 0-1 record as they came back to beat Westminster 4-3. “In squash every match counts the same, no matter what ranking you are on the team. Everyone is crucial to the outcome and when we win, everybody has to be strong,” said the number one rank, Captain Brown. Westminster was a big win for Girls Squash since Andover suffered a crucial loss to that team last season. Andover unfortunately got swept by Deerfield Academy, losing their second game of the season, suffering a 1-6 defeat. Although each player played with a lot of heart and determination, their skill and conditioning levels could not match that of their opponents. Not discouraged by their loss against Deerfield, Andover played with both intensity and enthusiasm for their first home match last Saturday, against Choate. Choate is a consistently strong team and placed third at Interschols last year. Despite Andover’s valiant efforts, the team fell two matches short of a win. The two matches won were won by number one, Captain Brown and number two rank, Smith. Both girls showed an impressive balance of aggressiveness and skill. Brown aced her opponent 3-0 while Smith pulled out an exciting 3-1 win. Both Smith and Brown had well-played matches, executing their shots perfectly. However despite their two wins, Andover fell short, losing to Choate 2-5. This past Wednesday, Varsity ranks four, five, six and seven joined with the Andover JV one, two and three ranks in a combined match against Winsor. Wilmarth, who played the number one seed on Wednesday, defeated her opponent in three short sets, 9-1, 9-1 and 9-1. Choi, who played the number two rank on Wednesday, also won her match in three short sets. The other members of the team also won their matches, giving Andover a forceful 7-0 win. Wilmarth remarked, “It was a really exciting win for the team, and it was also fun to get to play with the JV players.” The Girls Varsity Squash team certainly has their work cut out for them this weekend with one away match against Noble & Greenough this Saturday, along with three games on Sunday against Loomis, Taft and rival Exeter Academy.
