Avery Westerfield ’18 nailed a quick shot into the corner, beating her opponent 3-0 and contributing to Andover Girls Squash’s 7-0 sweep against Middlesex on Saturday. The victory extended Andover’s winning streak to three wins. Last Friday, Andover defeated Groton 5-2, before falling to Deerfield 7-0 on Wednesday. The team’s record now stands at 8-3.
In its match against Groton, Prianca Patel ’19, Westerfield, Caroline Yun ’18, and Sewon Park ’17 beat their opponents in three games, while Jennifer Lee ’18 came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat her opponent 3-2.
Against Middlesex, Patel played first seed, Westerfield played second, Lee played third, Caroline Yun played fourth, Susan Yun ’17 played fifth seed, Brita Luke ’19 played sixth seed, and Park played seventh seed. Due to illness, Skyler Spaulding ’20 was unable to play, so Katie Hartzell ’18 stepped up and played as the team’s eighth seed. Each player swept her opponent in three games.
Captain Zoe Oasis ’17, who is out for the entire season with a knee injury, said, “The match against Middlesex was really good and everyone played really well. Everyone focused on the thing they needed to do, and we won pretty easily.”
Heading into Wednesday’s match against Deerfield, Andover looked to continue its dominance and work on hitting more difficult shots. Despite the team’s hard work in practice, Deerfield ultimately outmatched Andover, with each player losing in three games, except for Patel.
Patel said, “Today, my hard work paid off for me because I got a game off my girl and in the fourth game I lost 11-9, so the game was really close. I think our team did a really good job of adjusting our strategies on court based on the level of our player. We all analyzed our opponent’s game and tried our hardest to play to their weaknesses.”
Spaulding said, “I really want to work on my depth next week because I know I could have improved on that in my match today. We have nationals next weekend, so I think we all need to rise to the challenge.”
Andover will face off against Brooks on Friday, before traveling to Connecticut next week to compete in High School Nationals.
