Showing Positive Signs

As anticipated, the path to victory against Hotchkiss was a tough one, but similar to Choate there were definitely windows for the team to inch closer to a road win. A slight shakeup in the doubles matchups with David Suit ‘24 and Logan Sun ’24 battling at #1, ultimately falling to a big hitting Hotchkiss team 8-2. At #3, and one of the highlights of the day, was Hugh Olson ‘25 and Finn Hocking ‘26, who fought off a late comeback from their opponents to secure the pro set 8-6 off of excellent returns and much improved energy from both. Will Whiting ‘24 and Liam Hibbard ‘27 worked hard to build a lead for much of the match, but credit to their opponents for playing their best when it mattered, snatching the pro set from us 8-6 and earning the doubles point. Shoutout to Will Henry ‘26 and Henry Flaton ‘25 in the exhibition slot for playing some amazing points and raising the volume for everyone else to feed on. Down 1-0 heading into singles. The strength of the Hotchkiss lineup, both towards the top and bottom, gave us a hard time down the stretch but we showed some early fight and created plenty of chances. Sun had some looks in his first set, but dropped his match at #3 against a steady opponent. Olson and Hibbard ran into a few buzzsaws at #4 and #5, but we loved what we saw with our movement and footwork despite the scorelines. Although the match was already secured, and the rain began to fall, some bonus MVP performances go to Alexei Kocatas ‘25 in the exhibition slot, Hocking at #6 and Whiting at #2, the latter being able to pull off an ice skate superbreaker win 11-9! Suit was unable to finish at #1 with the weather, lots of credit to his opponent for stepping up in the big points, but still positives to take away. The boys have earned some rest before we get back on the wagon Saturday away at Frederick Gunn.