Girls Squash To Improve After Deerfield
This past Saturday the seven varsity members of the Girls’ Squash team traveled to Deerfield Academy to play against the Big Green and Sacred Heart in a doubleheader. Despite putting up their best fight, the girls left with two losses. The final score of the Deerfield matches were 0-7, as well as against Sacred Heart: 0-7. Despite the tough challenge these losses pose, the team admirably won’t let it hinder them from training harder for the rest of the season. Indeed, the team now hopes to use the experience as motivation to push it to win the rest of its matches.
In the days leading up to the match, the girls trained hard and did not waste time in their two hours of practice. The team looked to give every minute of training its best effort and constantly worked on specific, individual improvements. Upper Catherine Fortin described that they “did a lot of ghosting and drills in practice.” The practice of “ghosting” involves going through the motion of the squash strokes, though without the ball, and is well known to be a hard workout. In addition, the team also completed a number of fitness and consistency drills to stay quick and light on their feet. Upper Emily Baxter described who the team was “focusing on the power and placement of [their] shots,” in order to make the return more difficult for their opponent.
After the long bus ride out west to Deerfield, Massachusetts, the girls got off the bus ready for a fight. Going into the game, lower Leandra Sze commented on her expectations for the first match against Deerfield. “They have a really strong team and most of us were not expecting to win,” she said.
Two players recognized by their teammates for outstanding performances were Charlotte Kaufman and lower Kate Manderlink. Baxter highlighted that Kaufman “received the best results” out of the team that weekend, Manderlink was recognized for her valiant effort during her several matches. Sze went on to mention a fantastic display of positivity from upper Anne Brandes, which helped the team keep working and keep spirits out of the gutters. “Anne had a really positive outlook when going into her matches, which I admired. She also gave a motivating pep talk to the team before we played.”
In the following practices, the team will be preparing for a match against St. Paul’s this Wednesday and is looking for redemption from its 0-7 losses. Fortin expressed her optimistic point of view by adding that this next match “will be a great way to use skills we learned from the weekend’s match and implement them into our play.” Baxter backed her up by saying that Deerfielf and Sacred Heart were “the two best teams in the league so it was just a good learning experience overall.” Sze shared similar sentiments, summarizing, “we’re hoping to improve and to try to win as many matches as we can.”