After significant changes to the ladder, a rearranged Andover Boys Squash played four matches this past week. The changes did not appear to adversely affect the team, as it won two out of the three matches, bringing the team’s record to 5-4.
This week marked the team’s first week above .500 since the first week of the season.
The first match was played at home against St. Paul’s. In the anchor match, Max Fern ’18 remained unfazed after losing his second game and won his match 3-1.
Three other players on the team contributed to the win, with wins coming from number seven seed Ishaan Patel ’18, number five seed Reid Bradt ’15 and number two seed Captain Michael Huang ’15.
Patel, after losing his first game, came back to win three straight games and won the match 3-1. Bradt also won his match 3-1, and Huang shut his opponent out 3-0. Number four seed Jack Quamme ’16 and number six seed Robby Schwartz ’15 both lost their matches 2-3, and new number one seed Justin Curtis lost his match 0-3.
With the momentum gained from the win against St. Paul’s, Andover traveled to Choate on Saturday to play a doubleheader against Westminster and Choate. The first match played against Westminster was a solid 6-1 victory for Andover.
Head Coach Tom Hodgson wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “Westminster was less strong, and we played good basic squash to control the outcome of that match.” The only loss from that match was from Fern, who lost to his opponent 1-3.
The team did not fare as well in the following match against Choate. The team lost the match with a 2-5 score. The two wins came from Schwartz and Huang, who won their matches 3-2 and 3-0, respectively. Hodgson said that the Choate match proved to be a tougher match for the team, as only “two of the five matches we lost were quite close.”
Schwartz said, “Our doubleheader against Choate and Westminster offered us a preview of Nationals, in which we’re ranked as the number one seed in Division III. Choate proved to be a difficult opponent; they’re ranked in Division II. We only won two matches of seven, but the majority of games played were competitive.”
Andover headed into a Wednesday match against Exeter with momentum from its two prior victories.
“Exeter is seeded in Division II so we were out to test their mettle when they came to Andover,” Schwartz said. Andover walked away with a 4-3 victory over its rivals to claim its third win of the week.
Andover heads to Connecticut this weekend for Nationals, to see, as Head Coach Hodgson said, “if we can bring home the [Division III] trophy at Nationals for the second year in a row.”
