The sharp sound of the final buzzer pierced the chaos of the scrambling players, sending Andover Girls Water Polo streaming into the pool to celebrate its New England Championship win and redemption from a disappointing loss in last year’s finals.
Seeded third in the NEPSAC Final Four Tournament, the team overcame a 2-0 deficit to Hopkins in the semifinals to push it into the Championship game. Then with the game tied 7-7 in the finals against Choate, Sasha Newton ’16 put the team ahead with 20 seconds left, giving the Andover a perfect ending to a rollercoaster season.
“This victory was one of the highlights of my andover career. It meant a lot to me because I sacrificed a lot to be able to be at the championship and because i knew that every single member of the team played a part in the victory,” said Co-Captain Kate Simpson ’14.
Andover finished the season with a 9-3 record: the first loss coming from the second game of the season, the second coming from the game after to Exeter and the last coming in the week before the tournament at the hands of semifinals opponent Hopkins.
“We didn’t get off to the best start, so no we definitely didn’t expect to win at the beginning. We knew every team had really strong skills, but we also knew that when we played our best we were unbeatable. We knew we had the capability to be the best, and luckily we were able to prove that to everyone,” said Eden Livingston ’15.
The 10-9 loss to the first seeded Exeter was undoubtedly disappointing, but the team quickly rebounded, shooting to a 6-0 run. Win after win inspired the team and as the tournament drew closer, Andover’s title prospects grew.
“Our biggest goal was the same as every other teams: to win New Englands. However, we approached that bigger goal in a lot of small steps. We focused on building a very skilled, deep bench so that we had a lot of good, consistent players,” said Livingston.
The team’s success can be attributed to three components: an unstoppable offense in leading goal scorer Co-Captain Kait Simpson ’14, an unbreakable goalie in Jen Powers ’14 and inspiring leadership from Coach Dan O’Shea and four -year team member and Co-Captain Lauren Conte ’14.
“Our Coach Dan O’ Shea was fantastic. He was an excellent motivator, which is undoubtedly a key attribute of a successful coach. He taught us our skills, came up with our plays, and kept us energetic and driven throughout the whole tournament and we owe everything to him,” said Livingston.
The loss to Hopkins did not disturb this game-winning mentality, only making the eventual victory even more meaningful. Over the course of the season, the team’s invincible sense of unity held.
“This season the Girls Water Polo team truly functioned as a unit. I think that was one of our strongest attributes as a team. Our entire team – coaches Dan and Jill [Kozloff ’09], captains Kait Simpson ‘14 and Lauren Conte ‘14, and all players – consistently approached practice and competition with a positive, enthusiastic, and determined attitude. In critical, challenging moments, we kept up our intensity, our will to fight, said Newton.
Newcomer Morgan Rooney ’17 said, “We all came together at radically different experience levels and learned and grew together and formed not only a team, but a family that I am so blessed to be apart of.”
Following the Final Four Tournament, Simpson was named the league MVP, and Conte and Newton were elected to the All-Star team.
The team will lose five seniors this year as Seniors Simpson, Conte, Powers, Harshita Gaba and Corinna Torabi all graduate.
“This season was more successful than I ever could’ve imagined. Not because we won New England’s, but because we came so far as a team. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to share this very special experience with, and I am going to miss playing water polo at Andover more than I can even express,” said Conte.
