Sean Winston-Luo ’24 is the Co-Captain of the Andover Boys Squash team this year.
Andover Boys Squash huddles before its home meet against St. Paul’s School.
2/7 Andover: 4 St. George’s: 3
This Tuesday, Boy Squash won a highly anticipated match against St. Paul’s. The following day, the team also won a close match against St. George’s School, its last before heading to New England Interscholastic Squash Association Championship (NEISA).
Co-captain Sean-Winston Luo ’24 described the team’s preparation leading up to the match against St. Paul’s. Winning against St. Paul’s, a team with seven U.S. Squash national titles under their belt, would be an indicator for the team at the upcoming squash Nationals.
“We were just coming off a long weekend and a lot of kids are traveling away from school, which gave us a lot of time to rest, but I feel like it’s also a very good chance to get too relaxed in a way. So the day before we all soloed, we practiced. We came to the courts early on Tuesday to get ready for the match because it was one of the biggest matches of the season,” said Luo.
Luo continued, “[We had] a very focused mentality. We knew this was going to be a very close match. They beat us last year to send us home from Philly. So definitely like a big loss last year, and I think there’s a big sense of ‘we want to get them back this year and play our hardest and get a win.’”
Having lost to St. Paul’s at Nationals last season, Alexander Yang ’26 emphasized the sense of redemption as the team matched up against players that they lost to the previous year. Yang applauded Will Weissman ’25 for his performance against a repeat competitor.
Yang said, “Will’s game was really interesting because he played the same guy that he lost to last year during Nationals. But this time, he did really well to beat the guy from St. Paul’s, 3-0.”
Luo also applauded Ali Gamal ’26 whose deciding match helped Andover secure the win. Gamal’s competitive matchup demonstrated his perseverance and promoted a spirited audience.
Luo said, “Ali Gamal had a really good match. At number seven, he was the deciding match… He won four games and it was very close. He was diving around a lot and started bleeding everywhere since he was diving so much. But that was definitely a really good match and everyone was watching that.”
During the Varsity squash against St. George’s, a few players from the JV1 squash team moved up to take the place of missing varsity players. Chris Fu ’26 addressed the challenge of playing at a higher level than normally.
Fu said, “We knew [it] was going to be kind of close because there were only three Varsity players… I thought we did well for what we had and… [for] jumping up that many places.”
Looking ahead, Luo highlighted areas of improvement for the team. Luo emphasized the next steps as the Andover team prepares to play challenging opponents in NEISA and at Nationals.
Luo said, “We could work on just being a little bit more sharp all around the court. A little quicker on the ball. A little more consistent. We’re going to be heading into Deerfield this weekend for New England, and we’ll be playing some of the toughest opponents we’ve played this year. So definitely going to [have] some tough matchups ahead and we’re just going to fight hard, stay sharp, [and] make sure we’re mentally ready to play.”
Boys Squash will play away at Deerfield for New Englands this upcoming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
