Jason Kokones ’25 eyes the goal for a shot.
Saturday 10/7 – Andover: 7, Choate: 13
Andover: 4, Hamden Hall: 12
With a doubleheader this past Saturday against Choate and Hamden Hall, Andover Boys Water Polo lost both matches. However, the team persevered to the end, fighting every minute of the game.
Ethan Zhu ’26 commented on the loss against Choate, mentioning that there was significant improvement in the team’s movement in the pool. Despite the loss, Zhu shared that the team was satisfied with the work it accomplished in-game and less concerned about the end result.
Zhu continued, “We had underperformed in the previous games, so we were just expecting to play better and more focused, especially because last time, a lot of us were tired. And it was a Wednesday game, so we weren’t really focused, and we didn’t play as well as we thought it would. Really, the main goal was just to focus, remember what we did in practice, and just execute.”
Hooyeon Lim ’27 added to Zhu’s point, expressing that the team had prepared constantly to improve from its previous match against St. John’s Prep. Lim shared that although the loss against Choate was disappointing, the team is focused on the gradual progress at play, which was evident last Saturday.
“Despite the loss, we saw drastic improvement compared to the St. John’s [Prep] game. This is one of the best games we’ve had so far as a team together, so we’re looking forward to building on that and beating whoever’s next on the list,” Lim said.
Zhu credited a majority of the team’s ability to put points on the scoreboard to teammates Jonathon Ji ’24 and Samuel Lee ’24.
“Two people [that really stood out to me were] Jonathan, I think he scored a lot of goals, five, and then also, Sam Lee. He had this really cool save where he saved two shots in a row, which made the game really close,” said Zhu.
With 3 hours and 15 minutes in between games, the team let its performance against Choate distract it from the game against Hamden Hall. According to Lim, the team was less focused going into its second game, leaving it unprepared for the level of intensity Hamden Hall brought.
Lim said, “I think that going to the Hamden Hall game, we were a little bit more relaxed and I think that’s what caused us to have a little fall back at the start and, which led us to a loss. Going in, we thought we did really well at Choate and we thought that that’s exactly how we were gonna be performing at Hamden Hall and that’s not what happened, at that time.”
Curt Herlihy ’24 commented that the team’s unstable defense contributed to some of the mistakes made in the game. Looking ahead to future practices, the team hopes to improve this aspect of play.
“I think that we really had to work better on changing how we played our defense to better counter their offense, which was focused on two very, very strong players. So we should have probably run closer to a drop defense to be able to have them both double-covered more efficiently. That would be our biggest shortcoming. And I think in practice, we’re gonna start working on being more dynamic with our defense and our offense to help better combat different teams,” said Herlihy.
Andover Boys Water Polo will play away against Loomis Chaffee and Brunswick next Saturday.
Despite the necessary improvement, Herlihy additionally added that the team is always focused and ready to put in the work. Herlihy credited the team’s radiating praise and support to his own personal improvement.
Herlihy stated, “I would say during practices, I think we’re all focused. We all want to be there. We all wanna play water polo and during games, we’re really supportive for each other and we want everyone to succeed. We give praise whenever someone does anything.”
