Dismantling Hotchkiss, Taft and Central Catholic, Andover Girls Volleyball overcame a tumultuous week to secure three victories.
After winning a close first set 25-23 against Hotchkiss, Andover dropped the next two sets 20-25 and 10-25. With its back against the wall, Andover fought back to win the fourth and fifth sets with scores of 25-17 and 15-8.
“The one thing we did consistently was rally to make comebacks,” said Captain Alexi Bell ’13.
Throughout the match, Bell and Alex Becker ’15 combined for 23 kills while libero Kayla Maloney ’13 contributed 58 bumps.
“Volleyball has so much to do with momentum, so when things are going poorly, you’ve just got to get momentum back on your side and get your mindset and focus back in,” said Veronica Hildenbrand ’14.
In the second match against Taft, Andover struggled out of the gate, and Taft gained a 1-0 lead. Andover recovered, however, and dominated the next three sets 25-14, 25-20, 25-17.
“We managed to pull together when we needed it most. In our best moments, we swung really well, not only in terms of power but location,” said Bell.
Bell served seven aces against Taft, while Lucia McGloin ’13 added 10 kills. Maloney continued her strong play and converted successfully on 74 out of 78 bumps.
Despite the final scores, Bell felt that there was still room for the team to improve.
“This weekend, we didn’t play consistently,” she said, “At times, we were on top of our game and went on runs of several points, but between those high moments, we crashed and let the other team rack up a lot of points.”
“Mentally, we have a difficult time recovering from a few small errors, which then develops into longer strings of errors,” she continued.
The team showed signs of improvement when it swept Central Catholic 3-0 in a home scrimmage on Tuesday.
“We learned from our mistakes and were able to play our best right from the start,” said Isabel Taylor ’15.
Andover looks forward to proving itself once again at Loomis Chaffee on Saturday.
