Anezka Kuncova ’17 fired multiple stellar serves to help Andover Girls Volleyball secure a 21-11 set, allowing the team to sweep Deerfield 3-0 last Saturday. Andover continued its success this Wednesday, capturing a win against St. Paul’s and propelling the team’s record to 8-6.
Against Deerfield, Andover entered the game missing several of its rotation players, including Sidney Holder ’17 and Chioma Ugwonali ’20. As a result, Andover was forced to employ new lineups and approach the game with a different strategy.
“As a team, I think we did well adjusting to a new rotation, having to switch from a 6-2 to a 5-1 because we were missing Sidney and Chioma. We only had two practices with this rotation before Saturday’s match, and I think we implemented it well because we’re really adaptive and can work with new things relatively well,” said Adaeze Izuegbunam ’20.
Libero Serena Liu ’19 said, “One thing that really worked was our new defense where we kept our two-person receive, as well as changing our back-row defense to where the libero would play left-back and the outside [would play] middle-back.”
Although Sewon Park ’17 was moved from her usual position, she performed her new role skillfully against Deerfield.
Izuegbunam said, “Sewon Park stood out a lot. Our new rotation required her to play all the way around the court instead of her typical front row. She received really well and had four aces which drove the team forward, particularly in the third set.”
Andover secured its second consecutive win by a large margin, defeating St. Paul’s 3-1 on Wednesday.
Post-Graduate Margot Forti ’17 and Janneke Evans ’18 both contributed key aces against St. Paul’s, when on offense.
What was most noticeable, however, were the vast improvements Andover made from its previous games, particularly a 3-1 loss to Nobles earlier in the season.
Liu said, “Today, we really came together as a team by playing as one. We were able to cover many balls that we had been struggling with in previous games and our hitters were able to finish off the points with powerful hits.”
Izuegbunam said, “The team played very well as an extremely cohesive unit. We’ve given away matches before by becoming complacent after we demolished our opponents in the first set. On Saturday, we kept our energy and intensity up the whole game and sailed to a smooth victory against Deerfield.”
Andover looks to continue its two-game winning streak this Saturday in its matchup against Milton.
Editor’s Note: Sewon Park is a Commentary Editor for The Phillipian.
