Three minutes into the second half against Deerfield on Friday, Andover Field Hockey grabbed a 2-1 lead when Eliza Quigley ’15 received a corner and drove the ball to Lexi Davidson ’17, who rocketed it into the far corner of the net.
Andover went on to score three more goals and emerge with a 5-2 victory. Coming off the Deerfield game, the team added yet another win to its undefeated season with a win against Nobles & Greenough, 3-1, on Wednesday.
During the first ten minutes of its home game against Deerfield, Andover came out uncharacteristically lacking in intensity and drive.
“We didn’t start off well,” said Elizabeth Holubiak ’18. “I’m not sure what team was out there playing in the first ten minutes of the game.”
When Deerfield scored the first goal, Andover regained confidence after a brief team huddle.
“After they scored the first goal, we got ourselves together and started to pick it up,” said Holubiak.
Shortly after, Andover tied up the game with a momentum-changing goal.
“I think after the first goal [was] scored, it gave everyone more confidence that we could win the game, and we started to use each other a little more to get goals,” said Hannah Cregg ’16.
Andover built off that goal and pulled ahead for good.
“We kept the momentum, and they were not able to reestablish themselves in the second half,” said Holubiak.
In the second half, the four goals that Andover scored doubled Deerfield’s total goals allowed in its previous 11 games.
“The best part was that they had only had four goals scored on them all season, and we scored five on them in one night,” said Lila Dolan ’15.
“We managed to pull ourselves together and pull out a great win,” said Captain Eva Toffoloni ’15.
On Wednesday against Nobles, Andover maintained high energy throughout the game.
“We definitely came in knowing it was going to be tough, so we came out ready to play, which is something we have struggled with in the past,” said Ashley Tucker ’18.
Hannah Burns ’15 said, “We were really determined to beat them, so we kept the energy and intensity up the whole time.”
Andover’s dominance showed in the box score and the number of offensive corners it won, 17 compared to Nobles’s three.
“We really capitalized on our corners, which we have had trouble doing in the past,” said Julia Marcus ’15.
“Nobles is a tough competitor always, but I think we hung in there and persevered and got good results,” said Head Coach Kate Dolan. “We really needed our whole entire team to work together to do well.”
Looking to continue its undefeated season, Andover will play Cushing away on Saturday in its penultimate game.
