Squash Takes Two in New York City

On Friday night, Exeter boys’ squash traveled to New York City with a season record of 3-3. Exeter played matches against The Hill School, from the Philadelphia area, and Street Squash, a Harlem-based club team. By the time they returned to Exeter, they had improved their record to 5-3.

Everyone was battered after a late night drive into the city and were not well-rested for their Saturday games. If fatigue wasn’t enough of a handicap for Exeter, they also had to deal with the absence of three varsity players.

"The team has a strong desire and will to win. We are very optimistic and are looking forward to the rest of the season."

Although Exeter wasn’t able to bring its entire varsity team to the tournament, they were able to build a team by taking athletes from junior varsity. “We had to take players from lower on the ladder in order to bring a full team,” lower Darius Kahan said. “But players like senior Andrew Turner and other senior varsity boys did a spectacular job fulfilling their new positions.”

Big wins from these newer players helped the team cruise to a win against the Hill School in a dominating 6-1 matchp. Turner and upper Torrey Foster both played games in their match where they “bageled” their opponents, not allowing a single point. Kahan, unfortunately lost his match against Hill’s number one, Dylan Sweeney, who is ranked fourtieth in the country for boys under 19 years old.

Exeter then went on to defeat their opponents on Street Squash, finishing with a 7-0 record. The win set the team on a 5-game winning streak. Exeter’s skill and athleticism outweighed their lack of sleep, as they were clearly superior to the other two teams during Saturday’s matches. Turner believed that the team didn’t face any real challenges over the weekend and that everything happened for the best.

“The team has a strong desire and will to win,” Kahan said. “We are very optimistic and are looking forward to the rest of the season.”

“The team has been playing some very difficult matches recently, and everyone has improved drastically since the start of the season,” senior David Liu said. “I think we have all learned from game experience. Plus, the team is highly motivated. We all see that hard work pays off in every game, and we inspire each other in practices to push ourselves to the edge.”

“The formula for our success really comes from the camaraderie demonstrated on this team. It’s special, and that’s why we’ve been so dominant recently.” The team has many games to go, but it is looking to take it one game at a time.

After these two prior wins, Exeter is looking to utilize their motivation to drive the team to a 6th win this season. Big Red has a home match this Saturday against Noble & Greenough at 1:00.