Lunging for a shot behind his Choate opponent, sixth seed David Tsai ’18 pulled the ball out of the back of the court and won the point to earn a 3-0 victory, contributing to Andover Boys Squash’s 4-3 win against Choate. Andover proceeded to fall 0-7 against Taft in the second match of its doubleheader on Saturday. The team suffered another 0-7 loss against Deerfield on Wednesday to drop its record to 1–3 on the season.
Against Choate, Andover saw tight victories from Ishaan Patel ’18, Jerry Yang ’17, Alexander Schwartz ’19 and Tsai, the team’s third, fourth, fifth and sixth seeds, respectively. Andover’s perseverance pushed it to the victory.
First seed Alex Bernhard ’19 said, “Ishaan, Jerry, Alexander and David had tough opponents, but when you boil it down they just were able to keep pushing for longer and harder and get the win.”
“We had a lot of tough matches against Choate, but at the end of the day we found a way to dig deep and come out on top,” Bernhard continued.
With just 40 minutes of rest between matches, Andover was unable to maintain its momentum against Taft due to its exhaustion from battling Choate immediately before.
Yang said, “I think if we had some more time to rest our legs, we could have changed the outcome.”
Bernhard said, “Taft’s team was solid, and they had a lot of matches under their belts together. We weren’t playing them with fresh legs, but I think everyone gave it their all and our next encounter should be more well-matched.”
Against Deerfield, Andover’s struggle on the offensive ultimately caused the disappointing loss. Despite the score, the team prides itself on its ability to maintain a positive mentality in the face of adversity.
Captain Jack Quamme ’16 said, “Our match against Deerfield was tough. I think the team simply had some trouble finishing points, which is why Deerfield came away with the score they did. However, we were much stronger than them mentally, and I was proud of the way our boys handled the tough competition and stayed strong in their mental game. Even though the game score was very one-sided, everyone on the team fought hard and there were a lot of good points and games.”
Looking forward, Andover will focus on improving its agility and enhancing its overall racket skills.
Head Coach Tom Hodgson said, “First, we need a lot more match experience. Second, we’re a long way from being in good squash condition — we’ve only been at this for a week and a half and there are some tactical things we need to learn how to do.”
Andover hopes to gain some momentum this weekend in its matches against Groton and Middlesex on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
