In one of its most anticipated and toughest matches of the season, Andover Volleyball hosted Northfield Mount Hermon last Saturday. But Andover could not come up with the victory. With Brian Watson ’08 and Co-Captain James McGuinness ’08 sitting out due to injuries, Andover lost 1-3. Andover came out on fire to win in the first game. Coach Clyfe Beckwith stated that the team “could virtually do no wrong, while NMH was still settling into a rhythm.” The final score was 30-23. In the second game, Andover came down from the adrenaline rush, and NMH improved its level of play by executing better serves. A combination of NMH’s serves and well-placed attacks catapulted it to a 15-30 win to tie the score 1-1. NMH established momentum in the third and fourth games. Capitalizing on its high energy levels, the opposition won the games 19-30 and 22-30. Zach Dixon ’08 said, “We won the first game because we came out really strong as a team. It helped that our serves were really strong and NMH made a lot of errors. We lost some of our steam in the later games that we lost. But NMH is supposed to be the best team in our league, and after we get Brian Watson and James McGuinness back from injuries, I think that we could beat any team in the league. It’s just a matter of how confidently we play.” The team named Sam Burwell ’09 as MVP of the day. He gave a spectacular performance, recording a team high of five kills and seven saves, hitting 21 for 25 and serving 12 for 14 in Andover’s tough loss.
