Through missed scoring opportunities and questionable calls, the Andover Varsity Field Hockey team lost to Loomis Chaffee 4-3. Loomis started the game by putting the first point on the board eight minutes into the first half. Not wasting any time, Andover answered immediately. Lauren Seno ’05 scored off a pass from Post-Graduate Erica Christensen ’05. Katherine Dix ’05, who had a strong performance in last week’s victory against Governor Dummer Academy added another goal to her season total and put the Lady Blue ahead 2-1 midway through the first half. The Lady Blue could not keep up their momentum, and Loomis answered with a goal of their own with 3:40 left in the first half. Annie Boylan ’07 said, “After we took the lead in the first half, our defensive recovery started to relent in intensity.” The Andover defense was unable to stop another Loomis goal, and the Pelicans scored two minutes into the second half. Co-captain Kelly Stecker ’05, Lindsay Moramarco ’06 and newcomer Caroline Moore ’07 helped the Lady Blue rally to get back into the game. Megan Montecalvo ’06 and Ali Zindman ’07 did a superb job transitioning the ball up and down the field to help Andover regain the lead. Sure enough, the tenacity of the Lady Blue allowed them to control the tempo during the rest of the second half, shooting out Loomis 14-6 in the second half. Lower combination Carolyn Pollard ’07 and Zindman got to work to tie the game at 3-3. Andover continued to struggle in the offensive circle and could not capitalize on scoring opportunities in front of net. A missed penalty shot by Seno kept the score at a 3-3 stalemate. With a minute and a half left in the game, things went south for the Lady Blue. One of the referees signaled for a Loomis corner, and intuitively, after hearing the referee’s whistle, the majority of the Andover team stopped playing. However, since only one of the referees blew the whistle, Loomis kept playing and eventually shot and scored. There was tremendous confusion amongst both teams as well as among the referees. The referees discussed the call on the field and decided the goal would count, even though one of the referees whistled to stop play. The penalty was wiped out, and play continued. The questionable call left the Lady blue down 4-3 with no time to make it up. Head Coach Kate Dolan told her team after the game, “Life is not always fair you have to learn to deal with thing, this was a good experience”. Coach also added, “We did not lose because of the referees, we lost because we did not capitalize on our opportunities”. Though disappointing, the tough loss did point out several areas that need improvement. Co-Captain Stecker explained, “We have a very strong team, full of talent, we also play hard, and I think we have the drive to go far this season, however, we still need to improve, especially on taking advantage of scoring opportunities”. The Big Blue hopes to battle back from this tough loss against Tabor Academy on October second at 3:30.
