After a rough week in which Andover Boys Volleyball suffered two losses to Choate, 3-2, and Wilbraham and Monson, 3-1, the team is no longer the first seed in the league.
Andover beat both those teams earlier in the season, though, so the team still hopes to capture the North Eastern Championship title this Saturday at the Founding Four Tournament.
“I think losing to Choate and Wilbraham this week has really reminded the team that we have to work to win and that when you are on top you cannot take your place for granted,” said Ji Tae Park ’14, a libero. “We cannot underestimate the other teams, and we have to try our best because that is what happened with us this past week.”
Andover began its game against Choate with a 25-20 loss in the first set and a 25-14 loss in the second set.
The team picked up its energy in the third set though, and jumped out to an early lead at 6-3. Later in the set, the team’s lead fell to one point 16-15 until Andra Gusman ’14 scored five consecutive service points to bring Andover ahead 20-16. The team maintained its lead until the end to win the set 25-21.
Wilbraham took the foruth set 25-22, coming up with the win.
“We are not satisfied with losing. We are going to continue to improve and show it this weekend with hopefully our best performance of the season. We know we are capable of better and we are looking forward to the chance of coming home with the New England Championship,” said Oliver Chernyk ‘15.
Setter Haonan Li ’13 served a perfect 15 out of 15 during the game against Wilbraham, and David Crane ’13 finished with an impressive 17 out of 20 attacks as well as one kill.
The team also lost to Choate in five games earlier in the week and to Central Catholic last Tuesday in a scrimmage. Andover also scrimmaged against and beat Lawrence Academy two Saturdays ago, 3-0.
“The machine was a little rusty today,” said Theo Agbi ’13, a middle hitter, of the team’s performance at Wilbraham. “There was a lack of energy and people were shutting down. Every now and again there were a few shanks. But, there were also quite a few saves by players such as Gusman who was really a star player today and blew us all away.”
Currently seeded second in the league, Andover will travel to Northfield Mount Hermon this Saturday to play in the Championship Tournament with the hope of winning the 2013 Championship title.
