Avon Old Farms Ably Overcomes Foes from Hopkins 5--2

Avon Old Farms Ably Overcomes Foes from Hopkins 5--2

    On Wednesday, February 17--a day with a 1 hour delay schedule due to the sustained snowfall the day before--13 players from Hopkins made the trip north to Avon Old Farms school to take on the Avon boys varsity and junior varsity squash teams.  Avon has a wonderful 7 court squash complex, and the superior depth of the Avon squad soon became apparent, as in the junior varsity contest, Hopkins players Aidan Appleby, Griffin Smilow, Steve Falcigno, Teddy Schaffer, Luke McCrory, and Michael McCarthy were unable to win a single game from their Avon counterparts.  Still, this proved to be a good competitive tuneup for the lower part of the ladder when they will face a somewhat less experienced team from the Williams School in New London next Wednesday at the New Haven Lawn Club.

    The varsity match began with the even numbered players having their matches begun first.  Doug Schaffer at #6 worked hard but was defeated soundly by Avon's Colin Bernard 3--0.  But then Max Martin at #2 for Hopkins used hard and crisp ground strokes down the walls, first one side, then the other,  combined with deft drop shots to defeat Santiago Moran by an equally decisive 3--0 score.  Then the attention turned to the #4 singles match, where tri-captain Nick Aeppel got off to a solid start but wound up playing too many shots to his opponent's  strong forehand and eventually went down in a hard battle, 7/11, 11/9, 11/3, 11/8.  So at this point Avon was in the lead 2--1.

    Now it was the odd numbered players' turn to take the court.  Unfortunately for Hopkins, Avon's #5 and #7 singles players were able to forge 3--0 victories against game but overmatched Hopkins players Michael Gold and Jack McLean respectively, thus clinching the match for Avon.

    At #1 singles,  Hopkins' TJ Dembinski outmaneuvered his hapless Avon adversary by sticking many of his shots very close to the side wall and forcing errors, eventually gaining an 11/1, 11/8, 11/8 decision.  The match concluded with Avon's Casey O'Brien dominating Ryan Daley at #3 singles, 11/3, 11/9, 11/6 in a less than scintillating contest.

    The top 4 players take part tomorrow in the Fairchester Athletic Association League Squash Tournament at St. Luke's School in New Canaan.  After that, only the New England Prep School Squash Championships remain for the boys' team.  Hopkins will be competing in the "C" division at Suffield Academy the weekend of February 27--28.

    This coming Friday, both the boys and the girls teams will have the treat of being invited to the home of Victor Niederhoffer, former world squash champion, who lives in Weston, Ct., for some squash pointers and a team dinner.  Victor's daughter Artie is a 2006 graduate of Hopkins, and Victor's wife Susan served as a Hopkins trustee for some 10 years.  Victor Niederhoffer, a 1964 graduate of Harvard University who won the National Intercollegiate singles championship his senior year, has a squash court inside his spacious home.  Many Hopkins squash players are looking forward to this very unique opportunity to learn the game from a true racquet sports expert.

With best regards,

William L. Ewen