Andover Boys Volleyball fought its way to third-place in the annual “Founding Four” Tournament at Choate last Saturday. The team won its second game of the day, defeating Wilbraham Monson in four sets after losing its first match against top-seeded NMH 0-3.
“The first game was tough, but, eventually, we pulled it together,” said starting libero Ji Tae Park ’14.
For the second year in a row, Andover finished third in the tournament.
After losing to NMH, Andover fired on all cylinders against Wilbraham Monson.
Vidush Mahansaria ’12 came up with a few key blocks and hits, and Andover came together to take both of the first two sets 25-23.
At the start of the third set, however, Andover seemed to tire and lost the set 17-25.
Despite this, Andover started the fourth set with a spirited flurry of swings and, as a result, points. The team went on to win the set 25-21 and the game 3-1.
Kade Call ’14 later said, “I think that we played pretty well in the second game… I’m proud of the way we played today because we showed that [though we were the fourth seed] we would not back down to anybody.”
Earlier in the day, Andover faced off with number one seed NMH.
In the first set, the team responded to top-seeded NMH by countering almost every point. During the set, Andover sported a unique zeal and quick tempo play that it had lacked for much of the regular season.
“In the first set, we had a lot of energy and communicated well,” said David Crane ’13. He later added that, “We had several team cheers that helped us to work together and to keep the set close.”
Eventually, however, the team lost its focus and dropped the set 17-25.
Andover also lost the second and third sets by the scores of 7-25 and 19-25, respectively.
Co-Captain Jimmy Philps ’12 said, “There were stretches where we were focused enough to go on runs against [Wilbraham Monson], and there were stretches where it seemed like we were completely demoralized by the first round loss to NMH. Luckily for us, I think [Wilbraham Monson] was… even more demoralized than our team; we were able to concentrate long enough to pull out the victory.”
