Sweeping Phillips Exeter Academy on Saturday and St. Paul’s on Wednesday, Andover Girls Squash completed its fourth and fifth straight sweeps, extending its winning streak to 5 matches. Andover now holds a record of 8-1.
Against Exeter, the team arrived strong and composed, setting the tone for every match, according to Charlotte Toogood ’20.
“I was proud of the way in which we conducted ourselves and demonstrated excellent sportsmanship and composure on the court. We beat Exeter gracefully and efficiently which was an especially awesome win for us,” said Toogood.
In preparation for its matches, the team worked on controlling the game throughout the closer spaces of the court, according to Kennedy Ndiaye ’22.
“Leading up to the match against Exeter we practiced a drill where we could not hit the ball in the middle of the court, so we were really trying to keep everything tight and in the corners to prepare,” said Ndiaye.
Before it’s match against St. Paul’s Andover worked on movement on the court, attempting to develop and solidify muscle memory.
“I think this week we are doing a lot of fitness and we are going to work on more drills practicing movement, just to keep practicing those repetitions so that it comes easier for this week,” said Ndiaye.
Saffron Agrawal ’21 added, “We have been focusing especially on fitness this past week and the week before. That would have helped us a lot in our match if it had been a bit tighter because then it becomes a question of who can outrun who, but we also have been working on offense a lot which helped when we were given opportunities to attack.”
Against St. Paul’s, the team was able to utilize shot placement and stamina to prevail in every match.
Katherine Bell ’22 lost her first game 12-10 but was able to emerge victorious. According to Mafi Pinot Forno ’22, Bell’s mental performance kept her in the match.
“Katherine’s match was the closest one. She lost the first one and then she won the rest of the sets, but she did so well and kept her focus and strategy throughout the whole game,” said Pinot Forno.
As the team looks to maintain its streak of five sweeps in a row, it will focus on having a clear game plan leading up to each match, according to Pinot Forno.
“We are doing a lot of team preparation on our deep game which is basically having a strong strategy and we have been working on that during practice and applying it to our matches,” said Pinot Forno.
Andover will face Groton at home on Friday and Brooks away on Wednesday.
