Claire Colvin ’23 dekes a defender to find the net.
Anne Averill ’23 rushes down the field.
Scoring three goals in just the first quarter, Andover Field Hockey proceeded to a dominant 6-1 victory over Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) on Saturday. The team continued its win streak with a 3-1 victory over Buckingham Browne and Nichols on Wednesday, putting its record at 11-1.
With an early lead against NMH, the team wanted to preserve its momentum in the latter half of the game, according to Ava Murphy ’24. The team’s eagerness to extend its lead prevented it from maintaining quality possession. However, Murphy noticed an eventual regain in focus.
“Honestly, I think we played really well. Sometimes we lost our heads a little just because we were so excited. We were up by four or six goals and we really wanted to just continue to score, but we had to realize that we also needed to calm down and just work on possession. Because we didn’t need any more goals, we just needed to run them to timeout. And so, we did struggle with that a little at first, but then once we realized that’s what our mission was, we did it,” said Murphy.
Neilly Ware ’25 shared a similar sentiment to Murphy. In addition to the excitement of having a substantial lead, the team faced stress from unexpected injuries, increasing the need for composure throughout the game.
“It was a bit of a stressful environment, a bunch of people were getting injured, and it was a very competitive game, so it was a little stressful. We needed to keep our composure and just play poised and play our own game,” said Ware.
Leading up to NMH, the team focused on utilizing all of its players and all the space on the field. With five different team members scoring six goals total, Murphy believed Saturday’s game was reflective of the team’s efforts.
Murphy said, “One of our strengths was definitely connecting. We worked a lot in practice over the weekend connecting our passes and really using everybody on the field, and that helped us get the ball off the field and into the net, and stretching the field.”
In contrast to Saturday’s game, the team fell behind early against BB&N. Although the team was initially unmotivated, Quiana Bell ’26 emphasized the team’s steady increase in energy as the game progressed, continually bringing more effort and determination.
“Starting off it was pretty slow, I think it was because they got the first goal, but after that happened we just all realized, ‘We got this,’ and that we had to start moving. So, I think after we realized that we were down, our energy came back super high, and everybody was back into the game and really positive,” said Bell.
According to Bell, the turning point in Wednesday’s game was when they played through having two less players on the field. After two team members received green cards—two-minute suspensions—the team changed its outlook on the game, drastically increasing its sense of urgency and teamwork.
Bell said, “I think one of the biggest moments was when we were down two players. We had two players out on green cards, and so I think that’s when our team really rallied together. We all became super aggressive to the ball. It was really working together, communicating, cutting, and we managed to keep the ball in our offensive end for those entire two minutes, which was really good.”
Andover Field Hockey will host Deerfield on Friday and play away at Nobles on Wednesday.
