Andover Girls Volleyball secured wins in both of their games this week, defeating Tabor Academy 3-1 on Saturday before claiming another 3-1 victory over Rivers on Wednesday. The team’s record now stands at 8-3.
According to Mary Lord ’24, the game against Rivers on Wednesday had a few interesting highlights such as an amazing save from Karisa Bockley ’23.
Lord said, “From [Wednesday] there was one moment when someone badly passed the ball all the way out of bounds, and one of our players, Karisa, who specializes in passing, sprinted down and saved the ball, getting it over to win the point. So that was really exciting. We had some really good blocks, we had a really good serving pace. In the final set, we had 15 serves in a row [and] we were able to sweep them in the last set and it was just really good playing. There was a lot of good energy, we were playing really well…”
Wendi Wang ’24 believes the game against Tabors showcased the team’s offense and chemistry exceptionally well.
Wang said, “Some of the highlights of the game from [Saturday] was our offense. Everyone just really wanted the ball, and as a setter I could tell because they were yelling really loudly like “4 for 4” or “set me, set me”. As a setter, that made my job really easy because I was like ‘she really wants the ball, I’m going to feed her’. We actually got a lot of kills, especially our pin hitters. They got a lot of blocks on the other side and our hitters were able to see that.”
According to Wang, the team prepared for the game by reviewing mistakes made in past games in order to correct them before the next game.
Wang said, “We actually watched film on Thursday of previous games we played last week, especially the Loomis game which we were really close in coming back on the third set. That was a really good learning opportunity for me especially and for the team to see what our weaknesses and strengths are and learn from that.”
Wang further emphasises the importance of watching film as a team because it teaches perseverance and how putting in effort every play, despite the reading of the scoreboard, is crucial to winning.
“I think one thing I learned was I guess having a next-point mentality. Like if your team lost three points in a row, we should learn to shake it off and come back strong the next point instead of focusing on the score. I guess just go hard on every single point even if we’re down by whatever points,” Wang said.
Similarly, according to Lord and Jaedyn Ford ’24, communication and maintaining positive energy are points of struggle and the team looks to improve upon them for upcoming weeks.
Lord said, “The reason we keep on losing sets is because we kind of just let our energy down. We actually have one of the best energized teams in the league, but sometimes we just get really down on ourselves and we lose that. What makes us able to win games really is our energy.”
In an email to The Phillipian, Ford added, “The team has always been consistent with fighting for every point, but we definitely need to work on communication and keeping our positivity and energy up.”
According to Wang, the team needs to not be so hard on themselves, even after making mistakes.
“Every single player cares about the game, cares about the team, and sometimes they care too much about the team as a whole that they would feel really bad about themselves if they make a mistake in the game. As a team, we really don’t care if it’s an individual mistake, we just want the game to be fun and to be a great spirit for everyone. So just shake it off if you feel that way and come back strong,” Wang said.
Girls Volleyball’s next game will be at home against Choate on Saturday.
