Andover Girls Lacrosse has been practicing their settled seven-versus-seven offensive formation.
Following a foul, Kelly McCarthy ’19 received a free position shot from the 8-meter arc and sniped the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal, propelling the team to an 8-1 victory over Andover High School. This scrimmage on Wednesday began Andover Girls Lacrosse’s 2019 season. Although the game did not count towards their season record, it allowed Andover to prepare as a team for the upcoming season.
To prepare for the game, goalkeeper Kennedy Everson ’21 said, “We’ve been focusing on fitness a lot and some set plays that we can incorporate into the game early on. We have also worked quite a bit on communication because in these early games it’s important that everyone is on the same page about everything.”
The scrimmage marked the team’s first opportunity to play together as a full varsity team and practice working together as a unit, according to Co-Captain Jo Caico ’19. The team made the most of this scrimmage, working on its plays and learning about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, according to Olivia Nolan ’20.
Nolan said, “The effort was there throughout the game and by the end we really started clicking together. On the defensive end, I think we did a good job being pretty communicative and that’s really key because you need to know where your girl is and where the ball is.”
According to McCarthy, the team used timeouts and half-time to refocus its strategy and discuss new strategies.
New players have adjusted well and the team has become close despite how early it is in the season, according to Caico.
“The new girls this year have blended so well with the team thus far. It really hasn’t been a tough transition for them. They play great with the returners and are the nicest girls,” said Caico.
The team hopes to continue to improving its offensive play in order to score more goals and be more effective.
Nolan said, “Offense is definitely an area that we need to focus in on because at the beginning of a season, it is difficult to get a flowing offense going. In practice, we will work on our settled offensive [seven-versus-seven formation]. This allows our attack to utilize some of their plays in practice and allows the defensive to get a sense of what the next matches will look like.”
This Saturday, Andover will travel to Hotchkiss to compete in its first regular season game of the year.
