Caroline Garrity ’15 wove her way through a crowded defense and fired a shot into the left corner of the goal. Her shining solo effort evened the score for Andover Girls Soccer in its 1-1 draw with Loomis Chaffee on Saturday.
Getting off to a rocky start, Andover conceded a goal in the first 20 minutes. The team struggled to keep possession of the ball and allowed Loomis to create many offensive opportunities.
After the first goal, goalkeeper Antonia Tammaro ’17 stonewalled the Loomis attack to keep Andover in the game through the first half before Garrity’s equalizer.
While Andover escaped without a loss, Head Coach Lisa Joel noted that the team did not perform to its full capacity. “It wasn’t a great game for either side. Both teams were trying to put it together, but no one was in a flow,” she said.
“Loomis is always a tough competitor every year, and we look forward to playing them. They’re aggressive and have some really talented players. Although we started off a little slow, we quickly picked up the pace knowing that it was going to be a close game,” said Garrity in an email to The Phillipian.
Joel continued, “It’s a good outcome to go down to Loomis on a big weekend and tie against a team that is perennially the best, so we’ll take that outcome.”
After the gritty tie on Saturday, Andover found its footing in a 1-0 win on Monday against Pingree.
Caroline Shipley ’16 provided all the offensive skills necessary with a 68th-minute goal to put Andover up 1-0.
With the ball bouncing around in the box, Shipley put her body on the ball and redirected it into the goal, sealing the win for Andover.
Andover controlled the pace with a blistering transition attack on the wings and smothering defense led by Co-Captain Kinsey Yost ’15 and Deyana Marsh ’17.
“Most of our success came from quick transitions from defense and getting the ball out wide to look for crosses into the box. We also created a lot of opportunities in front of the net by slotting the ball through to one of our forwards and were unlucky not to score more goals this way,” said Olivia LaMarche ’16 in an email to The Phillipian.
She continued, “After the first ten minutes, we found our groove and began stringing passes together, playing the ball seamlessly around our opponent.”
Building off the dominant performance against Pingree, Andover will look for a victory at home against Tabor on Saturday.
