On Saturday, in the midst of pouring rain that made it hard to maintain possession of the ball, the Girl’s Varsity Soccer team lost to Choate 2-1. Wednesday, Andover played Governer Dummer Academy to a 2-2 tie. While the loss to Choate was unfortunate, the Big Blue was satisfied with its play as they out-hustled and out-played the other team. Coach Lisa Joel said of the game, “This was the best game that I’ve seen at PA in recent years. Given the conditions this was impressive team soccer. Choate stole that one, but the game was dramatic and exciting; it was excellent.” Andover knew that they needed to play with 150% to beat Choate in horrible conditions. Teamwork was crucial in advancing the ball up the field. The defense played extremely well together, dominating the field and sending long balls to the offense. Choate scored in the middle of the first half off of a reversed penalty call, which had originally been Andover’s free kick. The Big Blue answered quickly with a goal by Katherine Lee-Kramer ’07 off of a penalty shot. While Andover continued to battle until the very end, Choate put another goal in sealing the win 2-1. At the end of the game however, no one on the team could complain. Coach Joel said, “Everyone came to play on Saturday. Because the game was cut fifteen minutes short we just ran out of time. We are an enormously talented team both individually and collectively, and once we come out of this close tie, close loss rut, we will be incredibly good.” On Wednesday, Andover let in a late GDA goal to allow the other team to tie the game at 2-2. The game began with each team battling for possession of the ball, and very early on GDA scored the first goal of the game. The Big Blue was persistent, answering with a goal of their own by Captain Ali Holliday ’06. At halftime the score was 1-1, and Andover knew that it could win if it really hustled. The Big Blue possessed the ball the entire second half, making some remarkable plays. There were many through balls sent and a lot of one-two touch passes. Melissa Macdonald said, “This game was good because we implemented a lot of the skills we have been perfecting in practice.” Andover proved it had the stamina to really finish when Jenna Castellot ’08 launched a ball in from the side with an assist by Kara Hollis ’07. Hollis had a great game at defense, giving Andover the spark it needed to push even harder. Even with a lead of 2-1 the Andover girls did not give up, they played until almost the end. However, with fifteen seconds left to play GDA sent a ball across the eighteen and put in the back of the net. The game ended with a final score of 2-2. This tie was disappointing considering how hard each individual and the team worked. Coach Joel said, “Those last fifteen seconds were an unlucky end to a great game. However, we did have a great second half with much better touches on the ball. It was unfortunate though, because we played well enough to win. But, this shows us that anything can happen during a game and that we must persist for all ninety minutes. That said, we did do a lot of things right and it is time to turn games to wins.”
