Boys Volley rejoices after victory.
Saturday 3/30 – Andover: 3, Choate: 0
Boys Volleyball (1-0) played Choate at home last Saturday for its first official game of the season. Andover won all three sets against Choate.
Guilherme Lima ’24 highlighted Arthur Wu ’25 and Eddie Lou ’24 for their exceptional teamwork in the win against Choate. Specifically, Lima described the powerful combination of Lou’s sets to Wu and Wu’s impressive hits.
“Arthur Wu had a great game. This was probably his best game this season so far because we were able to run our offense the best we have run so far this season, and we were getting a good ball to the setter. Our setter, who also had a great game, Eddie Lou was getting some really nice sets to Arthur, and Arthur was elevating so high and getting some incredible hits,” said Lima.
Brandon Fu ’25 discussed the team’s practice strategies leading up to the Choate game as well as the various scrimmages they had in preparation for the season opener against Choate.
“Choate was the last of our three-game and four-day series that we had last week.
We had Andover High on Wednesday and Lawrence High on Friday. Those were both scrimmages. I think those scrimmages were testing different aspects of our play, and it helped us lean into the Choate matchup… We always want to work on passing making sure we can get passes to the setter, and also having a positive spirit. It’s a pretty big mental game… Having fun and enjoying everything in the spirit of the game is important,” said Fu.
According to Raymond Williams ’26, the team has a lot of positivity on the sidelines, which is particularly important in volleyball as a momentum sport where more energetic teams tend to have the greater advantage.
“Our coach has said that the team’s energy is probably the best he’s ever coached. People on the bench who may not start this year and some of the newer people on the team work hard to make the energy as positive and as loving as it could be. The effects of it have been seen because volleyball is a momentum sport. It’s really easy to lose a point and then sulk. But when you have people all around you cheering you on and wishing you the absolute best the energy…transforms you and it elevates your level of skill,” said Williams.
Fu also commented on the team’s plans for further improving its performance in the upcoming weeks. This included watching films to analyze both weak and strong points as well as working on core skills.
“We’re going to watch films, [and] we’re going to break down films of the past few games…[to] determine weak points and strong suits and develop plays from there. In addition to that, we are going to work on our fundamentals, especially on the first and last day of practice leading up to games. In between we’ll probably do some conditioning, maybe some further techniques, drills, and game-type situations… Overall, I think it’s going to be a really exciting week in practice,” said Fu.
Boys Volleyball will play Northfield Mount Hermon on Saturday.
