With a shift in momentum Tory Rider ’22 scored four goals in a final push during a 10-11 loss to Pingree. Andover Girls Lacrosse traveled away to Pingree this past Friday, following up with a home game against Noble and Greenough on Saturday. After a 7-14 loss to Noble and Greenough, Andover holds a 4-2 record.
According to Rider, the team overcame a lack of scoring after a short warmup, leading to a game changing push to comeback against Pingree. After making lineup adjustments in addition to strong goaltending, the team made progress.
“I think we really fought hard. We had a short warmup and only ten minutes to warm up, so it was a slow start, but at halftime we were down by a lot and we ended up coming back. Off of halftime, we changed the momentum of the game. We made some changes including moving me to the center circle of the draw we and got more possessions. Our passing and our rides were really good. We were connecting really well when [Co-Captain Kennedy Everson ’21] would save the ball and we were able to get the ballup the field very quickly and settle down the motion. We were able to work the ball around and pass and cut. Communication was the strength of our team on defense. We were able to get the ball out of our defensive end well,” said Rider.
According to Head Coach Heidi Wall ’94, the defense proved strong in the second half, only allowing three goals. With a major score deficit, the team gradually narrowed it to a one goal game.
“A big highlight from the game against Pingree was coming back from a 4-9 deficit at the start of the second half. The score was 4-8 at the half, they scored the first goal of the third quarter to make it 4-9 and then we scored six unanswered goals to go ahead by one. Our defense was lights out in the second half and kept them to only three goals,” wrote Coach Wall in an email to The Phillipian.
According to Lucy Booth ’23, the team was unable to execute fast, cohesive ball movement against Noble and Greenough. She noted the strength shown on defense, but mentioned that speed was an aspect that allowed the other team to win.
“We locked down our offensive movement because we realized that we could not just get goals off of straight drives. We had to get goals off of passing it around. All of our drives in our Nobles game were draw and dumps. We knew we had to step up against Nobles by executing clean passes. It was a hard game because nobles was so fast and strong, so they really beat us with speed. As a team we need to continue to work on our passing on offensive because we have been locking down on defense,” said Booth.
According to Rider, the team will focus on working together as a unit and winning ground balls. Going into Exeter, the drills in practice will be altered to allow for improvements in these areas that include spacing, offball movement, and ground balls.
“We definitely need to work on ground balls. On offense, we need to be more united because we were very individual on offense and we need to learn to work more as a team instead of playing as singular players. We need to focus on doing a lot of ground ball work and one on ones. On offense [Isabela Miller PG’21] and I need to work on using our teammates, being the main dodgers. We need to take advantage of the other attackers and not be so individual when going to the goal. We are going to be doing drills involving clearing through to make space, picking, off ball movement, and ground balls,” said Rider.
Girls Lacrosse looks to defeat Phillips Exeter Academy away this Saturday.
