Andover Boys Volleyball suffered a tough loss in a scrimmage to St. John’s Prep (the Prep) on Saturday. In a rematch with many players out with injuries, including Co-Captain Will Suh ’24, Andover was swept by the Prep 3-0.
William Oh ’26 expressed his disappointment with this week’s shortcomings, noting that it wasn’t up to par with the team’s standards for itself.
Oh said, “I think that we played a lot worse than we could have. It was not our full potential. This only perpetuates our ambition against [Northfield Mount Hermon] (NMH) and [Phillips Exeter Academy] (Exeter). These games are only scrimmages, but we were still disappointed. We were quite stunned by the absence of our captain Will Suh.”
Arthur Wu ’25 shared similar sentiments, expressing that Suh’s injury hindered the team’s ability to play at their best. However, the team adapted and fought hard to stay in the game.
“During our game against St. John’s [Prep], we were missing many key players like one of our Captains, Will Suh ’24. This led to a lower amount of energy from the team, but we made adjustments and played as hard as we could until the very end,” said Wu.
Notably, a change of lineup boosted the team’s success late in its match against the Prep. Oh noted that Wu replacing Suh’s position helped the team find its offensive footing.
“One of the bright spots was our adaptability. In the beginning, we were a little distraught without Will. But after a little bit, we found our groove like Arthur playing outside instead of middle, and these changes are something that we found good in a pretty bad game,” said Oh.
Oh continued, “One player that stood out was Kai Szanton [’26]. It was one of the moments where he had more playing time than usual this season, and I think he stepped up very well.”
Finishing its first half of the season, Andover continues to build on its foundation. Brandon Fu ’25 shared the team’s plans for forthcoming games.
“Today, we ran through some conditioning and a lot of in-game scenarios. We are going to continue to scrimmage and get the fundamentals solid leading up to the game on Saturday, where hopefully, our work will pay off in the form of a win against NMH,” said Fu.
Wu described keeping a proactive mindset and high morale throughout the upcoming weeks, even during more competitive matches.
“Moving into our future games, our main priority is our ‘let’s go for it’ mindset. Focusing on the things that we are good at. We were discouraged at the beginning because our energy was low, so starting off strong is really important moving towards our next games,” said Wu.
Despite the loss, Boys Volleyball is hopeful for the end of the season. Wu highlighted the team’s aspirations and continued plans for practice.
Wu said, “Our goal now is to lock in the first seed, play well, and hopefully participate in the finals for our league. We also need to continue polishing certain aspects of our gameplay, like consistent serving and smart hitting.”
Boys Volleyball will play NMH and Exeter this Saturday and Wednesday.
