Sports

Girls Soccer Defeats Groton 3–1 in Season Opener

Emma Robinson ’23, Co-Captain of Andover Girls Varsity Soccer, lobbed a corner ball straight to the center of the box. After the ball bounced off a Groton player, Wylie Roossien ’26 ran towards the goal and, off a volley, scored her third goal of the game. Assisted by Robinson, Emily Mara ’25, and Lily Keim ’25, Roossien’s hat-trick propelled the team to a 3–1 win over Groton. Andover’s record now stands at 1–0.

This year’s team consists of nine Juniors and eight new members moving up from JV. With more than half its roster new to the team, Andover’s main focus for the first games is rebuilding a strong team chemistry, according to Kate McCool ’23. 

“The team consists of a lot of new players this year. We had a lot of graduating Seniors last year.  Our focus at the beginning of the season is just to try and create a cohesive team as possible but that doesn’t seem to be a problem at all, so I think for the rest of the season we are focused on scoring a lot, winning and lot,” said McCool.

According to Lauren Herlihy ’25, maintaining possession throughout the game allowed the team to create dangerous opportunities against Groton. In addition, she highlighted the high energy and high speed-of-play of the game. 

“We played really well as a team today. We hustled really well and won most of the fifty-fifty balls. Our passes and crosses were really on point today. Our energy in the last five minutes [matched] how we started the game,” said Herlihy.

Ava Davey ’25 shared similar sentiment to Herlihy, emphasizing the team’s accurate passes and dominant possession. However, she believes the team could still work on its stamina in order to preserve good communication in the latter half of the game.

“I think we played very well as a team today, and I think something we can work on is communicating and finishing in the final third. We can also continue to pass to our outside backs and center backs to open up the fields, but our passes were mostly spot on, and we won a bunch of fifty-fifty balls today,” said Davey. 

In addition to Roossien, McCool gives credit to the rest of the team’s offense. Specifically, she emphasized that the team’s attackers maintained consistent pressure on Groton’s defense, forcing turnovers and breaking confidence.

“I thought the team was extremely strong in the attacking third of the field. We have Wiley and Emily Mara and of course Jazzy Cormier [’24]. They are extremely strong up top and forced a high-pressure on the other team’s defense and shook them up a bit, and that was really the reason we scored so many goals today,” said McCool.

Andover will play at Rivers on Saturday and host Middlesex on Wednesday.