Co-Captain Austin Tuan ’17 delivered a strong performance for Andover Boys Volleyball against Northfield Mount Hermon last Saturday, serving 19-21 and recording 5 aces. Despite Tuan’s success, Andover lost 3-2. Later in the week, Andover fell 3-0 to Exeter to bring its overall record to 3-4 on Wednesday.
Against NMH, the team won the first set 25-23, securing an early lead after Jakob Beckwith ’17 stepped up at the service line and brought Andover to a four-point rally. After winning one of the next two sets, Andover led 2-1 heading into the fourth.
Despite its strong performance early on in the game, the team lost its energy as it transitioned into the fourth set, enabling NMH to tie the score 2-2.
Andover fought hard in the start of the fifth set, keeping the game close with a score of 8-7. The team then allowed eight consecutive points for NMH, eventually losing 15-8 in the final set of the match.
Andover’s lack of endurance proved to be its downfall on the court.
“We need to work on our endurance and we need to have more confidence in our bench,” said Co-Captain Evan Park ’18. “We were up 2-1 games but lost because we were tired.”
Rawit Assamongkol ’18 said, “After the fourth set, a majority of the team was tired and we lost focus and didn’t play as well which eventually led us to lose.”
Despite Andover’s loss, Park believed the game was the team’s strongest showing of the season.
Park said, “We played the best volleyball that we have played all season. We limited our errors and had big hits in big moments.”
“Noah had a great game as outside hitter. He hit very hard throughout the whole game with consistency,” Park continued.
Later in the week against Exeter, Andover struggled to find opportunities to score.
Andover found it difficult to find rhythm in the contest, giving away many points due to response errors.
Head Coach Clyfe Beckwith said, “As a team we either over-reacted, hitting ball past the court, or under-reacted, as in setting up for receiving hard hits.”
Exeter, which maintains a record of 6-1, took advantage of Andover’s struggle to respond accurately to plays.
Vicente Riquelme ’18 said, “[Exeter] made very few errors, effectively communicating and covering each other. In addition, they only served into the net once or twice the entire game, depriving us of free points. Their successful coverage made it really difficult for us to score on any ball that wasn’t hit down hard. Even then, more often than not, they managed to get the ball back over.”
Jakob Beckwith and Roberto Rabines ’16 provided much needed motivation to a discouraged team. Coach Beckwith said, “Jakob and Roberto had the most enthusiasm, but as a whole the team did not sustain working together. It’s too bad, practice yesterday went very well in preparation for today’s match against Exeter.”
Andover looks to come back with power against Wilbraham and Monson this coming Saturday.
