Saturday 4/6 – Andover: 3, NMH: 1
Wednesday 4/10 – Andover: 2, Exeter: 3
On Saturday and Wednesday, Boys Volleyball (2-1) overcame Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) and fell to Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter) respectively. On Saturday, the game lasted a total of four sets, with Andover winning three of them. On Wednesday, however, Boys Volleyball played a total of five sets, and fell short to Exeter’s three wins.
After the win on Saturday, Inti Stephenson Castro ’25 recognized the key moments that allowed Andover to prevail over NMH.
“We were really on our game [on Saturday]. The first set was a rocky start for us. Everyone was a bit nervous in this set and we are not getting the right touches in with the ball. We ended up losing in the first but by a pretty small margin. Then, our Coach had a great moment talking to the team which exemplied his leadership skills. Following his speech, everyone just popped off… We were able to play composed and shut down their offense,” said Stephenson Castro.
Co-Captain William Suh ’24 praised Brian Chica-Herrera ’24 for his performance against NMH. He spoke on how Chica-Herrera has been able to adjust to the team and has begun making big plays.
Suh said, “I want to highlight Brian Chica, one of the Seniors on the team. He’s starting to find his rhythm more in terms of his offense. He’s swinging the ball hard and scoring a lot more points. I’m really proud of his development and his increasing confidence. He’s really falling into the rhythm of the rest of the team and making us dangerous.”
In preparation for the game against Exeter, Boys Volleyball was focused on cleaning up the weaker aspects of its game. Stephenson Castro mentioned the team’s main priorities before Wednesday’s game.
“So Exeter apparently does not have a lot of depth in their team. They have a pretty tall middle [blocker] but it doesn’t matter because I’m feeling more than ready to shut him down. I’m the libero so I’m playing to return their hard hits and to be the glue in our defense. We have a fantastic defense and a strong offens our main game plan for today, against Exeter, is to send free balls that from a messed up play to the weaker points in Exeter’s defense. We feel very confident facing off against Exeter and we are excited to employ our strategy,” said Stephenson Castro.
After the game against Exeter, Chica-Herrera ’24 shared how the team fell short, and where they could have improved. He explained that the game lasted five sets coming down to the wire with an unfortunate ending for Andover.
Chica-Herrera said, “Overall it went pretty well, but in the end we did lose after five sets. In the first set, we steamrolled Exeter which was a great start for us. The second set they adjusted really well and then they dominated us. The third and fourth sets were pretty average with one for them and one for us, and then in the fifth set, we just got stuck in one rotation and didn’t make much progress out of it, so they ended up taking the win.”
Despite the loss, Suh highlighted how the energy and confidence of the team has allowed it to have a hot start to the season. He noted that the energy on the team has started with the seniors but has quickly been passed on to the lowerclassmen.
“The main strength of our team is… energy. A lot of the new guys bring a lot of passion to the sport. They’re always loud, even if they’re on the bench. I always just bring a positive mood to the games. It’s really great that we are able to have such great energy both on and off the court,” said Suh.
Boys Volleyball will have scrimmages against North Andover High School this Wednesday and St. John’s Prep this Thursday.
