And the wins just keep on coming in. After the cancellation of last Friday’s game against Suffield, the Lady Blue traveled to BB&N to come home with a commendable 57-39 victory. With this game setting the girls’ season record to an amazing 11-3-0, this season is definitely going well for the Big Blue players. Wednesday’s game started out much like the rest of the season. The starting five, Captain Danielle Vardaro ’03, Meg Coffin ’03, Krystal Freeman ’03, Mimi Hanley ’04, and Kat Conlon ’04 got on the court and tried to take on their opponent. Ending the first half with a slight 26-20 lead, there was no definite leader. At half time, Coach Kennedy warned the players of the close score and pushed them to increase their energy. She told them that they needed to take control of the game and win. As usual, her mid-game pep talk helped the team focus when they got back onto the court after the buzzer. In the second half, the Lady Blue took off after BB&N tied it up right after the buzzer. With their lead reaching a high of 20, the half was full of Andover intensity and endurance. The defense stepped it up multiple times to create a barrier too strong for BB&N’s offense. The score was boosted by the Blue’s shooting sprees, where they took over the game and cleaned up their play. The game was an achievement for both the starting and non-starting lines. By the end of the half, the entire team had seen a good chunk of game time. Conlon brought in multiple shots from behind the arc, while both Freeman and Tetrault praised the team for their defensive efforts. In the second half, the girls were able to put all of their skills together—their passing, shooting, defense, and ball control were about the best they have been all season. Even the players were in agreement that the second half was well-played. Conlon remarked, “The second half we executed really well. It seemed like all of our shots were dropping. We swung the ball, we played tough defense. Everything we’d been working for all year worked out in the second half.” Laurel Sticklor ’05, in agreement, summed it up, “Basically, we really exploded in the 2nd half.” Coffin noted the importance of the late-season game, “This is a pivotal game for us and it was very important that we won. It put us in a good place for post season play, so its good that we stepped it up” The Lady Blue knew when they needed to turn it up, and that’s exactly what they did. As the girls have only two games left–against NMH and Exeter–their season slowly draws to a close. The future, however, looks promising for lady Blue as their previous encounters with these teams resulted in monstrous wins. Their final home game of the season, against the NMH Hoggers, is today at 6 pm at the DiClemente court.
