Christina Yen ’24 conceded jus two points in her best of five match against Groton.
Migyu Kim ’25 is the first seed player for Girls squash.
In addition to securing a 7-0 sweep against Groton as a team, all seven Andover Girls Squash players won their individual matches in just three games each. Combined, the team won all 21 out of 21 games played on Friday afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon, the team defeated Brooks 7-0 to secure its seventh win in a row. Andover’s record now stands at 10-2.
According to Cathy Cho ’22, the energy in the courts during the Groton matches propelled the team to a dominant victory. With multiple teams playing at the same time and large groups of spectators, the team felt more confident in its abilities.
“We were all really hyped I think, especially because we were all thinking about the long weekend. It was not just varsity but JV1 also played. Having more players playing together and cheering for each other – that was really nice. We also had a lot of spectators because now we’re allowed right, so it was nice to have all that support,” said Cho.
According to Liz Zhao ’24, practices the week leading up to Groton consisted of fitness and aggressive playing. The team conditioned and worked on its kills and attacks.
“Our coaches sometimes have us do this warmup that’s like five minutes of non-stop jump roping, five minutes of running up and down the Snyder stairs, and then five minutes of sprinting back and forth on the court. So we did do that a couple times before, and then that week our coaches also had us focus on attacking and playing aggressively, so I think that really did help us when we were playing Groton,” said Zhao.
Knowing Groton would be a weaker opponent, Andover players were able to zero in on certain aspects of their game. In particular, Cho wanted to focus on deep shots in her match.
“When I won my first game, Coach Elliot just came to me and said, ‘What do you want to work on?,” and I said I wanted to work on my deep shots so that it doesn’t bounce off the wall too quickly. And she was like, ‘Then make it into a condition game and only allow yourself to hit deep and straight,” said Cho.
Andover’s first and second seeds, Migyu Kim ’25 and Christina Yen ’24, also decided to give themselves conditions. According to Kim, this allowed her to take risks and dial in on her own weaknesses.
“[Christina] was kind of beating up her opponent, so I recommended her to use a condition to challenge herself and work on some of the things that she wanted to. Christina and Coach Elliot also recommended that I do a condition as well, and that just helped me focus on the game and make it really meaningful and just practice the things I wanted in terms of my game,” said Kim.
According to Kim, Brooks’ squash courts were a change of scenery compared to Andover’s home courts. The team had to adapt to different ball movement patterns and speeds in order to place its attacks precisely.
“The team was really focusing on taking advantage of the court. The ball moves really fast on the Brooks courts, but dies in the corners. We were focusing on adjusting to the different style of courts, especially because they played really different than our home courts. Focusing on having precise kills and drops, but also just wanted to have fun!” wrote Kim in an email to The Phillipian.
Andover will host Middlesex at home next Wednesday.
