Sascha Evans ’21 plays outside hitter.
Sarah Chen ’21 served eight points in a row to take the score from 4-5 to 12-6 for Andover in the first game of its scrimmage against Rivers on Wednesday. Andover went on to defeat Rivers 3-0, with game scores of 25-13, 25-6, and 25-14, respectively. The team’s record now stands at 3-1-1.
While not a regular season game, the scrimmage provided the team with an opportunity to try out its new offensive combinations and plays in action, according to Adaeze Izuegbunam ’20 and Mudmee Sereeyothin ’20.
Izuegbunam said, “This is practice, because we especially have a lot of new offense plays that we wanted to try. This was a good place to work those things out. I’m proud of us. We really did that.”
“We tried to run a couple more complex plays that we’ve been working on during practice, but we didn’t have as many opportunities to do so as we would have liked, because the other team had trouble getting the ball back over to us. This game was a scrimmage, so we tried out different lineups and set up the court differently for one of the sets we usually do [with a] 6-2 [player rotation]. This time, we tried a 5-1 position,” said Sereeyothin.
Suffering from injuries, the team adjusted to play with the same high energy in different rotations with varying combinations of players, according to Head Coach Clyfe Beckwith.
Coach Beckwith said, “I put three different line-ups today. So what they did really well was to keep the energy up and play with teammates that they have not played with in the same rotation. They adjusted really well. It was perfect. It was just a scrimmage today so what we needed to do was to account for some of the injuries that we have. And so today was a good day to try new [rotations].”
The scrimmage allowed the team to improve its confidence as individuals and as a unit on the court, according to Izuegbunam.
Izuegbunam said, “I think a lot of our players who weren’t as confident in their abilities definitely saw that they’re here for a reason. They really outdid themselves today. I’m definitely proud of them.”
Looking forward, Andover will face a historically strong Choate team, last year’s conference champions.
Brooke Fleming ’20 said, “My freshman year, Choate was exceptionally good. They were the team to beat. And last year, they lost some of their players, and we ended up beating them [at] home last year. But they went on to win the conference [championship].”
Coach Beckwith said, “I think we have a good shot. We have to prepare for all scenarios and then adjust the ones we need to adjust when we play them.”
The team will play Choate away on Saturday.
Editor’s Note: Sarah Chen is a Associate Digital Editor for The Phillipian.
