Without Captain Mark Adamsson ’11 in his normal number one doubles slot, Andover lost its first match of the season against Roxbury Latin on Friday afternoon. “We should have beaten Roxbury Latin. Mark’s absence from doubles hurt us. If we take that doubles match, we win,” said Coach Gregory Wilkin. Andover normally breezes sthrough the doubles portion of its matches, but on Friday, the team struggled to put together good volleys. Alasdair McClintic ’13 and Hayato Lee ’12 opened doubles play in their first career doubles match and came away with an 8-4 win. Andover quickly went cold after this win, as both the number two and one doubles teams fell to their Roxbury Latin opponents as Andover lost the doubles point. Although he wasn’t in the doubles lineup, Adamsson quickly took care of his opponent, 6-0, 6-1 in singles play. Peter Heidrich ’11 was edged out by his opponent in the two slot, losing a hard-fought match 6-7, 5-7. Myles O’Neil ’12 in the fifth slot and McClintic earned the other two victories for Andover in the loss. The next day, Andover took on league powerhouse Deerfield and lost its second straight match. Andover once again took the third doubles match, as Hunter Schlacks ’11 and MaxPng ’10 defeated their opponents. The team couldn’t win the first and second doubles matches again and lost the doubles point for the second straight match. Adamsson and Heidrich both earned wins in their singles matches, but Deerfield dominated the rest of the match, winning the three, four, and five matches. In the fifth slot, O’Neil stormed back in his second set to force a super-tiebreaker, but couldn’t squeak out the victory and lost the set 11-9. “Deerfield has a very deep team. With a bit of work, we feel confident we can beat them if we see them in the New England championships,” said Coach Wilkin.
