I spent this afternoon with the Choate team at another one of my old stomping grounds: the Phillips Academy campus, where I taught and coached in the first year of my career. Our tennis matches with Andover are usually hard-fought affairs, and we managed to eke out a 4-3 victory in dramatic fashion, with our team captain closing out his #4 singles match 6-4 in the third set.
This was an especially gratifying win for the squad, as it represents a breakthrough this season: until today, we struggled to win the doubles point against better opponents and we had yet to assemble a team victory in a contest against a truly competitive rival. Things fell together for us against a very solid team, enabling us to climb to a 7-4 season record and secure our place in the New England playoffs next weekend. We'll hope to use this momentum in our remaining dual matches and in the tournament.
