Sports

GDA Slips Past Girls Hockey

The Lady Blue Skaters have been on a rollercoaster already this year. Beating BB&N, the Maine Select Team and Saint Pauls, but losing to Governor Dummer, St.Marks, Loomis and Taft, Andover is a team searching for an identity. Andover started the season with a decisive win against BB&N. The game did not start well for the Lady Blue, as just minutes into play, BB&N was able to bury one in the back of the net. Andover would not go without reaction. Minutes later, Nikki Crocker ’05 sniped a shot past BB&N’s goalie during a scrum in front of the net. More goals followed throughout the game from Julie Wadland ’06, Lauren Seno ’04, and yet another goal from Crocker. Andover finished the contest with a 4-1 win over BB&N. Andover’s next appearance was against the proven St. Mark’s squad. With minutes to play in the first period, St. Mark’s dunked off a defensive-end face-off on O’Hara Shipe ’04. All throughout the second period it was back and forth play, but Andover could not seem to dangle any defenseman and score. Coming into the third period, Andover was still down 1-0. This period did not prove successful and St. Mark’s was able to finish two more goals. The contest ended in a 3-0 loss. A week later, the Lady Blue came back strong with a great victory over the Maine Select Team. Once the Andover girls got started, there was no stopping them. Lindsay Moramarco ’06 provided the spark, tallying one during the first period. The second period brought five more goals. The first was from Melissa Tetreau ’04 off a pass from Megan Shea ’07. Next came Moramarco on the attack again, who tipped a shot from Brenda Jones ’04 as it passed some dusters out front. Next came another tip in goal from Shea, shot by Megan Montecalvo ’06. Wadland followed suit, ripping one from the top of the circles, past the goalie to land top-shelf. Moramarco continued her scoring streak, earning the hat trick and scoring another. The final goal of the day was from Crocker as she deked the goalie right out of the net and scored. Andover finished the contest with a confidence building 7-0 win. The Lady Blue went next to compete in Taft Holiday tournament at the beginning of winter break. They faced off first against St. Paul’s and finished with a 6-1 win over the Pelicans. Two goals came in the first period from junior Shea, who came out on fire with assists from Montecalvo and Crocker. Again in the first period, a goal each came from Wadland and Montecalvo. In the second period, Seno was able to slap one into the back of the net assisted by Tetreau. The last and final goal of the game came from Crocker, who was assisted by Wadland in the third period. St. Paul’s scored with eight minutes left to play in the game, but still the scoreboard revealed a win for PA. Andover’s second game against Taft in the tournament came down to the wire. With ridiculously spectacular goaltending, Andover was unable to score throughout the whole game. Shipe kept the puck out of Andover’s net as well, leaving the game at a 0-0 stalemate when the final whistle blew. After a scoreless five-minute overtime, it came down to a five person per team shootout. The shootout was not so successful for Andover and ended 2-0 with a win for Taft. In Andover’s final game against Loomis to battle for third place in the tournament, they were unable to pull through. Fatigue and sickness had set in with the team and added to the inherent stresses of playing an early morning game. Loomis was able to dominate the game, but goalie Shipe was unfazed and stopped 63 out of 64 shots, quite a feat. Fellow teammate Montecalvo noted, “You can go on and on about O’ Hara because she did really well throughout the whole tournament.” Finally with just 33 seconds left to play, Loomis scored an open net goal. The contest was lost 2-0. In Andover’s latest game, this past Wednesday against GDA, they could not pull through to win. Tetreau scored an early goal on a pass from Jones. As teammate Wadland noted, “[Tetreau] carries a strong, experienced sense of the game to our team.” A win, however, was not in the works for the Lady Blue. GDA won 3-2, spoiling Andover’s first game of the new year.