Mudmee Sereeyothin ’20 played JV Volleyball at Andover for two years before moving to Varsity.
According to Neena Goldthwaite ’20, the team gained a surge of confidence from the first set victory, but its energy began to waver in the second set.
“We came into the game expecting Tabor to be one of the best teams, so after winning the first set we got a little cocky, leading to our loss in the second set. After that we picked it up to win the next two sets,” said Goldthwaite.
In the middle of the game Andover struggled with its serving game, leading to the second set loss, according to Delaney Arkell ’22.
“We missed too many serves in our first set on Saturday’s game, so getting all of our serves in is a huge focus point for Wednesday. Generally having a cleaner, tighter serve return will help us moving forwards.”
This past Wednesday, Andover traveled to Rivers and secured a 3-0 win. This was the sixth match this season that Andover denied their opponent a set.
Head Coach Clyfe Beckwith said that the game was won by the whole team, but the effort of the hitters propelled the team even further forward.
“The game was especially hard fought at the position of Middle Blocker/Hitter. Our defense learned to adjust, and our own middles persevered. [It was] a good win for PAVB, traveling with high spirits to Rivers for a first match ever at their school, as we played them at home last year as a scrimmage,” wrote Beckwith in an email to The Phillipian.
According to Goldthwaite, the two main goals for Wednesday’s game against Rivers were to improve serve-returns and heighten the pace of play.
Goldthwaite said, “We weren’t expecting [the Rivers] game to be especially difficult, so we were aiming to keep playing at our level and speed. We are currently still working on keeping serves in, improving our serve returns, and running faster plays, specifically lower sets to the outside and right side.”
Andover achieved its goal of maintaining a high intensity throughout the duration of the game, according to Michelle Brunetti ’23.
“I think the biggest improvement I saw from last game to this game was probably playing at our level instead of playing down when playing against an easier team,” said Brunetti.
Andover will face Choate at home this Saturday. The team hopes to remain undefeated to earn a high seed for the Nepsac tournament.
Editor’s Note: Brooklyn Wirt ’21 is an Associate Digital editor for The Phillipian. Sarah Chen is a Digital Editor for The Phillipian.
