Over the weekend, the Boys Squash team traveled to Groton to play in the New England Interscholastic Championship Tournament. Placing ninth out of 32 teams, it was a successful weekend for the Big Blue, with a lot of great squash played. Coach Tom Cone said, “This was a great experience for us. Everyone played incredibly hard and maintained positive attitudes throughout. No matches were absolute blow outs and people either did better against or even beat opponents whom they had lost to during the regular season.” On Friday, the Big Blue played the first round of the tournament. Unfortunately, the draw worked out such that Andover drew four seeded players in the first round. That night, Andover went 2-5 with wins coming from Captain Dan Wagman ’06 and Danny Silk ’07. Captain Wagman was seeded fourth himself, and quickly defeated his opponent in three easy games. At the number one spot, Derek de Svastich ’06 faced the number two seed. De Svastich played hard but was unable to defeat his opponent, losing in three games. Simon Keyes ’06 also had a strong showing. While he lost the match against the Brooks number three, he put out a lot of effort. Captain Wagman commented, “Simon faced a tough first round opponent, but he did not let that faze him. He came out to do the best he could, and he did very well.” Graham Miao ’09 also came very close to winning his match by using deceptive shots. However, the night was not very successful for the team as a whole. The next morning de Svastich once again had a very tough match against the Groton number one. While de Svastich kept up with him and was hitting with strong length, he could not pull out a victory. At number two Captain Wagman played Choate, and easily defeated his opponent without dropping a point. Miao, Sam Gould ’07, and Sam Woolford ’06 also earned some points for the Andover tally, each winning their second round matches. Coach Cone said, “I was pleased to see us earning some victories. The effort was certainly there, and this desire to win certainly allowed us to continue to move through the draw and earn team points.” In a huge upset, Captain Wagman defeated the number two seed of Taft. Wagman was shooting everything from all over the court and winning some unbelievable rallies. In the end, Wagman was able to win in three games. Coach Cone responded, “This was an incredible match. Dan was considered the underdog but he stuck with it. Everything was going his way, and his drops were really working out amazingly for him.” On Sunday Andover found Wagman in the finals of the main draw, Miao in the consolation finals, and Silk in the consolation semi-finals. In an exciting match against Belmont Hill, Captain Wagman lost in three extremely close games. The rallies were long with Wagman carefully selecting opportunities to attack. Unfortunately both Miao and Silk lost their matches. Miao played a strong opponent from Belmont Hill. Despite good drop shots and deceptive cross courts, Miao was unable to defeat him. Silk also faced a tough match against Westminster. Overall Captain Wagman summed up the tournament and season saying, “This was an excellent end to a great season. Everyone played really hard and showed just how much they had improved. I could not be more pleased with our placement in the tournament.”
