The Andover Ultimate team overcame its loss against Newton North last week with a dominating 15 to 3 victory over Pingree on Saturday. Pingree’s Ultimate program started only several years ago, so they haven’t had the same experience as Andover’s Ultimate teams. Although Pingree didn’t have the talent to compete, the Andover team greatly improved on their man-to-man defense. “Between Newton North and Pingree, we had a couple of very good, focussed practices,” explained Coach Hoenig. Hoenig added, “We worked on parts of the game that didn’t go well in our first game, specifically defense.” The team handled the disk very well, with few turnovers, only allowing Pingree to score three points in the hour-long game. “Going into the Pingree game, we set goals to improve on fundamental defense and offense, and I believe we achieved our goals,” said Hoenig. Duncan Crystal ’10 produced several highlight reel plays in the second half. Pingree threw very deep, and several times Crystal out-leapt his opponent. Crystal played spectacular defense and knocked down several Pingree passes in the game’s final minutes. “Newton North was our first game, and during the Pingree game, we had a much better idea of what real game situations were like,” commented Crystal. The Andover team played very well defensively, but “this season, offense has been the strongest aspect of our game,” said Crystal. Despite the strong defense in this week’s win, Hoenig believes the team needs to continue working on its positioning. “We still need to work on defense. I’m not worried about the offense. I know we can score; we just have to make sure we don’t get scored on now,” said Hoenig. Ultimate will use the upcoming week to prepare for its next game, which will be played at Concord Academy on April 23rd.
