Andover Girls Tennis team played rival Exeter in an extremely close match this Wednesday and continued it undefeated season in nail-biting fashion. Andover was undefeated, while Exeter had only one loss to Andover previously in the season. After a long doubles match and several close singles matches, Andover pulled through for its final win of the season, defeating rival school Exeter 5-4. The doubles teams started off with a shaky beginning. Within the first few minutes, Maggie Maffione ’08 hurt her knee again, after sitting out of singles play this entire season. This forced Andover to give Exeter a slight lead of 0 – 1. Elena Jacobson ’08 and Arianna Van Sluytman ’08 played the number two doubles position. After a long match, the Andover duo prevailed to defeat its Exeter opponent, putting the team in a 1 – 1 tie. It was up to Captain Julia Watson ’07 and Carolyn Brown ’09 to bring Andover into the lead. Playing the number three doubles position, the two forcefully took their opponents to put Andover into a 2 – 1 lead. “Each match was so close, it took over two hours for the doubles teams to finish,” comments Carolyn Brown ’09 on the intensity of each game. Despite the tiresome doubles matches, Andover proved its endurance in the top singles positions. Elena Jacobson ’08 played the number one position. Each set was close, but Jacobson ’08 pulled through to put Andover in an even further lead of 3 – 1. Eliza Flynn ’10 also had a tough match. As usual though, Flynn ’10 pulled through with a quick and forceful win of 6-1 and 6-2. Lauren Wilmarth ’09 had some tough competition at number three singles and unfortunately, both Wilmarth ’09 and Captain Watson ’07 lost their singles matches to tie up Andover and Exeter 4-4. Carolyn Brown ’09 had two more sets to play in her singles match while the team was tied at 4-4. After winning the first set, she had to win the second one to finish up the game. However, after close competition and long volleys, Brown ’09 was defeated by her opponent in the second set. With fans cheering at both ends of the court, Brown ’09 forcefully triumphed over her Exeter opponent in the final set to pull Andover ahead for the last time, resulting in a final score of 5 – 4 Andover. Andover teammates were ecstatic over their undefeated season, and “psyched for Interschols,” as Lauren Wilmarth ’09 remarks. “It was an amazing season and everyone had a ton of fun!” Wilmarth ’09 continues. Andover ended its season with a perfect 12 – 0 record. Eliza Flynn ’10 adds, “We did it for Maggie, we won for Maggie.” Maffione ’08 will serve as Co-Captain with Lauren Wilmarth ’09 next season.
