Entering the final five games of its season, Andover Girls Volleyball is enduring a four-game losing streak.
Despite amazing blocks from Pauline Huang ’23, impressive saves from Michelle Brunetti ’23, and clear sets from Wendy Wang ’24, Andover Girls Volleyball failed to record a win this Saturday. After a 0-3 loss against Northfield Mount Hermon, the team’s record stands at 8-7.
Despite needing work on its offense, the team’s defense has remained strong, according to Huang and Wang.
“We are a really defensively strong team, and I think our defense is one of the strongest in the league. The defense worked really well, but the offense needs to work more with our consistency and aggressiveness,” Huang said.
Wang added, “I think the defense was incredible. Michelle got balls that I genuinely thought would die on the floor and she just picked it up every single time. In terms of offense, we focused a lot on [it] during the practices in the last week. That has definitely helped our offense, but in general, we still need to improve.”
A lack of consistency was the team’s downfall in the game, according to Karisa Bockley ’23.
“During the game I think we did really well with just staying with the next point mentality. But I think our energy wavers so much throughout the game that it’s really hard to keep up our energy and will to win the game and competitive spirit,” said Bockley.
According to Wang, it took the team a while to get into the game, but once it caught momentum, the team played well.
“I think our energy changed a lot during the game. For the first two sets, our energy was pretty down, but in the third set, we came back really confident and strong. As a setter on the court, I could really feel that every hitter wanted the ball and they were calling out for it. That’s a big improvement I see in the team right now,” said Wang.
Bockley also mentioned that the team’s offense has shown progress since its last game against Exeter, but still has a lot of room to improve.
“[In terms of] our offense, we’ve been working on our hits and doing a little bit of less predictable things, to make it harder for the other team to block. I think we didn’t do as well as we could have, based on how our practices went. But I think we did a lot better than the Exeter game and we’re improving in that area, but we haven’t fully gotten there yet.” Bockley said.
According to Wang and Huang, the team practiced its offense by doing a lot of speed hitting and working alongside the coach individually. The team will continue to work on its offense by introducing quick offense into play.
Wang said, “We did a lot of speed hitting, just everyone lined up in three lines and hit a lot of balls. Hitters individually also worked with the coaches on off-hits when the set is really off the net, or really tight and need to adjust for those sets. I definitely see how our hitters are adjusting better this game.”
Huang said, “I think for the next week, we’re going to particularly work on our quick offense because I think our offense now, the pacing is a bit too slow, and if it’s quicker, it’s going to be easier for us to hit because it can avoid the blocking on the other side.”
Andover Girls Volleyball will travel away on Saturday to face off against Deerfield.
