Andover Girls Volleyball split its two games on the road this week, shutting out Tabor Academy and falling one set short against BB&N on Wednesday. Andover’s record is now 5-2.
According to Selene Xu ’27, the team had good chemistry and energy on the court in the game against Tabor. She highlighted the team’s coordination and how it ultimately led to the win.
“The bench actually cheered a lot louder this time, and people on the court were diving for every single ball, even though the court was not as great as we expected. And every single ball could have been a turning point for our win… A Tabor parent actually went up to us at the end of the game and praised our teamwork,” said Xu.
Despite the team’s success, Xu also noted that one area the team must improve upon before its next games is its defense. Maintaining a strong base allows the team to set up strong offensive plays, according to Xu.
“Something that we can work on is to make fewer mistakes on serve-receive because that is basically the basis of everything that we will do, like setting and spiking. I think as long as we get the base settled down, it should be much better and a much more fluid and quicker win… It would just lift off stress and tension if the first ball was defended really well” said Xu.
Lena Ciganer-Albeniz ’25 highlighted Wendy Wang ’24 as a player that stood out in Saturday’s game. Even with the team’s lack of consistent serve-receives, Wang was able to set her teammates up for success.
“Our setter, Wendy, was really good as always. And she was setting incredibly well. Even when the passes didn’t go directly to her, she would set from crazy angles, and that was cool.”
Against BB&N, Andover lost three sets in a row to turn over its 2-0 lead. Sophie Holten ’25 thought the team started strong, but acknowledged that it wasn’t able to sustain the effort.
Holten said, “In the first two sets, we were scrappy, and we went for every ball. I think that even though we lost a few points here and there, we were able to come back from that and continue to keep treating every point as a new point. And I think that in the end that’s how we won those two sets. And in the future we need to continue to have that mindset when we are on the court and to not let go of that in the final stretch of the game.”
Andover made ten service errors in the fourth set of the game. Holten believes that the team can learn a lot from this defeat. She feels that the team needs to strengthen its mentality during the match to allow it to rebound from mistakes quicker.
“We need to just stay out of our heads, and to come into every point with a fresh mindset. And trying our best is the only way to beat teams that are like BB&N. I think that communication is also really key, and regrouping after every point and trying to figure out what went wrong and always making changes is how we will win in the future,” said Holten.
Andover Girls Volleyball will host Choate Rosemary Hall on Saturday and Austin Preparatory School on Wednesday.
