Andover Field Hockey (10-0) secured two wins this week, with Wednesday’s matchup against Middlesex dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The team remains undefeated and hopes that it can sustain its momentum into the final stretch of the season.
Playing away at St. Paul’s on Saturday, the team was prepared to endure a challenging and physical game. After the team’s most recent win against Milton, Captain Shea Freda ’24 pinpointed areas of improvement for the team.
Freda said, “[The game] against Milton gave us some things that we wanted to work on in terms of our passing, communication, working together, so going into St. Paul’s, that was something we were focusing on as a team, in practices leading up to [the game].”
Andover started off strong against St. Paul’s, scoring two goals within a two-minute span in the first quarter. Andover picked up two more goals in the third quarter and a single goal in the fourth quarter, solidifying its win against Brooks. Neily Ware ’25 highlighted the strengths of the team and its ability to adapt throughout the game.
“We had a little bit of a stint where we were getting a lot of corners and not scoring on them and then we kinda turned that around and our forwards kinda got it together, putting it in, tipping really well. Meg Stineman [’25] had some awesome tips. We figured out how to put the ball in, so I think that turned things around for us,” said Ware.
Freda emphasized the importance of teamwork and ball movement, two aspects of the game crucial to the team’s success against St. Paul’s.
“We had a really nice passing sequence and it felt great to execute off of that, it was good to see what we could do when we had those really good moments of working together from the back of the field to the goal,” said Freda.
In preparation for Middlesex, Andover utilized similar strategies from Saturday’s matchup. According to Autumn Christian ’27, a big takeaway from the game against St. Paul’s was the team’s effectiveness in passing.
“Working on moving the ball quickly and using our back passes really helped in the St. Paul’s game. We used the same tactics against Middlesex because of the way that they played. So we had to adjust and we did really well on moving the ball and transferring to the other side of the field,” said Christian.
Against Middlesex, Andover scored in every quarter, pushing back against Middlesex’s strong offense. According to Christian, Freda stood out as a notable player due to her assertiveness on the field.
“[Freda] did really well at the back, pulling out strong. She went for every single ball and was playing so aggressively… You could really tell her role was Captain out on that field,” said Christian.
Looking ahead to upcoming games, the team looks to maintain its strong passing, according to Ware.
“We had a lot of great passing sequences…and a couple of them resulted in a clean goal. So, we are just going to try to keep up that passing,” said Ware.
Andover Field Hockey will host Northfield Mount Hermon on Friday.
