With the deciding goal from last week’s game under her name, Eliza Quigley ’15 came onto the field hot once again with an early opening goal against Loomis Chaffee on Saturday. Andover Field Hockey went on to score three more goals for a decisive 4-2 victory over Loomis and an unscathed 3-0 record.
“Because we scored right away, our momentum shot way up and their confidence went way down, so we kind of fed off of that and it helped us play,” said Nikoletta Toffoloni ’15.
Kelly McCarthy ’16 added, “Loomis is a really strong competitor generally across the board, so something we were really honed in on was making sure that we scored the first goal and that we were the people dictating the momentum of the game.”
Andover coupled its surging offense with a strong defensive performance and held possession for most of the game.
Forced turnovers on defense created breakaway opportunities for Andover.
“Our defense was really strong, and that set us up for a bunch of great opportunities on offense,” said Beth Krikorian ’17.
Nikoletta Toffoloni, who plays defense, said, “The ball didn’t come to our end too often since we were really good at anticipating where they were going to pass it and stepping up when we needed to. We only got a few corners during the game, and we did a pretty good job just clearing the ball out wide.”
“We were really communicating well and we were doing a good job with our free hits, so that’s good because no turnovers were caused on us,” added McCarthy.
Loomis’s field was packed with enthusiastic supporters, as students and alumni gathered to cheer for the team on the centennial of the school’s founding.
“We used Loomis’s cheers as motivation for us to succeed in the game, and so we had a lot of energy,” said Lauren Overly ’17.
“We had to have good energy because it was away and a Friday night game, so we knew we had to be fired up from the get go,” said Krikorian.
Julia Marcus ’15 added, “I think because it was such a long drive and it was a night game, we were all really motivated and really wanted to win, and we didn’t drive two and a half hours to go lose.”
In a low-scoring game that tested each team’s patience, Andover managed to make less mistakes and grinded out a hard-fought win.
“We really came together as a team,” continued Marcus. Even Payton Jancsy ’16, a manager for Andover Field Hockey, participated. He pointed out a rule violation to the referee as Loomis tried to advance the ball up the field. The referee congratulated Jancsy for being “exactly right,” and green-carded the Loomis player. The player was then forced to exit the game for two minutes, and Andover was given a “man-up” advantage, signifying Andover’s clear hold of the game’s pulse throughout the night.
Andover battles Brooks this Friday and hopes to continue its undefeated season.
