Repeatedly returning deep cross court shots, Siddhant Sinha ’21 waited until his opponent drove the ball to hit it deep into his backhand, winning the point and securing a 14-12 victory in his fourth game to win his match. Sinha’s win completed Andover Boys Squash’s 7-0 victory over Phillips Exeter Academy.
Over the weekend, the team also defeated Westminster and Choate 7-0 and 7-0, bringing their overall record to 8-2.
In anticipation for High School Nationals this weekend and the Exeter match, the team worked to solidify its lineup and enhance its fitness. According to Jack Lee ’20, Joe Kacergis ’19, and Erik Wang ’21, each of the matches this week was further preparation for the competition this weekend.
“We’ve been preparing a lot for improving our fitness level. We have challenges matches today to figure out what our ladder will be tomorrow… We’re just really trying to get ready for Nationals. We’re hoping to win Division Two at Nationals,” Lee said. “We’re not favored to win, but we’re [seeded] in the top four. Hopefully we will win Division Two, we’re training really hard for that.”
Wang said, “I’d say that we’re all just trying to get some good rest for the upcoming matches. We’ve been working pretty hard and training pretty hard. Especially thinking about the game strategies we’re going to take into play. So, we’re going to use a lot of good length, we’re going to keep our opponents under pressure, and we’re just trying to play tight squash.”
In practice, Head Coach John Roberts has been making sure to focus on maintaining rallies instead of quick points, which has benefited the team’s performance, according to Kacergis.
“Something our coach has been very big on is calming down the game play. Trying to play a more mature game than just trying to smack the ball and hit those winners. That’s definitely been a big part of our training, and the results of that have definitely shown through our results. Our game plays have been getting better, just less errors in general,” said Kacergis.
According to Kacergis, the past three games have yielded very consistent results in part due to the focused practices on game play.
Kacergis said, “I’m really proud of the team. We’ve been playing really consistently, which is awesome for us. Our team is very consistent all throughout the lineup, it’s not just one part that is consistently weaker than other. We’re very ‘in the game’ in all the matches we play.”
The team will compete in High School Nationals this weekend, beginning with a game against Exeter on Friday
