Westy Faces Off with Choate

On a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in CT the squad visited a strong Choate team hungry to get their regular season going after a long weekend at Kingswood-Oxford. Co-Captains David Suit ‘24 and Will Whiting ‘24 immediately battled hard at #1 doubles, with Logan Sun ‘24 and Hugh Olson ‘25 not too far behind at #2. It was exciting to see the double varsity rookie duo of Finn Hocking ‘26 and Liam Hibbary ‘27 team up in the #3 slot, and despite a spirited comeback, fell to Choate 8-5. Olson and Sun soon suffered a similar fate, but doubles ended well with Whiting and Suit winning in a tiebreak to gain back some momentum. Down 1-0 heading into singles. Alex Chen ‘24 joined the party at the #5 position and was showing off some impressive footwork throughout the first set. Elsewhere, despite losing the first set, Sun and Whiting came roaring back to claim the second and force a decider. While Olson fell to a solid opponent at #4, Suit mounted his own physical and mental comeback from down 4-1 in the set to force a tiebreak! The window of opportunity was there, but credit to Choate for closing well and shutting the door. Chen lost a tough fight in straights, while Sun and Whiting both dropped their supers. As the #1 match was then called in favor of deserved rest for both players, Hibbard played a great match at #6, winning 6-4, 6-2! Not too bad for a third former making his debut. Plenty of close contests, lots of credit to Choate for playing the tight games well, and we’ll hopefully bounce back tomorrow as we host Salisbury.