After a Groton attackman faked twice and shot inside the 8 meter arc, goalie Kennedy Everson ’21 stood tall in the net and made a point blank save. She then threw an outlet pass to an attacker over the restraining line, shifting the offensive back to Andover. The team went on to defeat Groton 13-9.
Late in the week, the team defeated Brewster 13-8 but fell to Governor’s 14-11. The team’s record now stands at 4-6.
Against both Groton and Brewster, Andover’s offence was able to make sure almost every possession ended with a goal because of maintaining possession and good shot placement, according to Brooke Keough ’19 and Liv Nolan ’20.
Nolan wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “I think that we did a good job placing our shots against Groton. It was one of our higher-scoring games, and it was because we were able to put the ball into a space that was difficult for the Groton goalie to react to.”
Keough added, “Something we did well [in the Groton game] was taking advantage of our offensive of chances and not throwing the ball away. Defense and midfield also did a great job of creating turnovers and moving the ball upfield. We also read off each other very well and created a lot of one v. one scoring opportunities.”
Before its game against Brewster, Andover practiced its transition offence. This practice payed off and was clearly apparent during the game according to Co-Captain Katherine McIntire ’19.
“Our transition is something we have been working a lot on in practice recently, and this game we did a great job getting it out of our defensive end safely when we’d cause a turnover.… Our offensive positioning on the fast breaks was executed well, and we scored I think four quick goals right in the early minutes of the game,” said McIntire.
Before its game against Governor’s, Andover had to improve its new defensive systems and its energy according to Nolan and McIntire.
McIntire said, “Before the next game we definitely want to work on maintaining our tempo until the last minute. We turned over the ball more in the second half on offense, and Brewster went on a six goal streak and almost caught up to us, so we’re going to focus on that in practice this week.”
Despite the loss to Govenor’s, Andover remained positive and worked to move past factors beyond the team’s control, according to Jessica Scott ’20.
“We did a really great job of staying positive even when the score got close and even though the officials had some bad calls. The whole time, we emphasized focusing on the “controllables” (things that we could actually control), rather than things like the refs, the weather, etc. (the “uncontrollables”),” Scott wrote in an email to The Phillipian.
Andover will look to bounce back when it faces Rivers on Friday.
