Ashley Vimnaku ’28 vies with Middlesex opponent to control the ball.
Andover: 1 – 2 Rivers
Andover: 3 – 1 Middlesex
Girls Soccer persisted through adversity this week, bouncing back from a tough loss against Rivers on Saturday to later beating Middlesex on Wednesday. At Rivers the game was tight; Andover gave away a penalty after a call that became the tiebreaker. On Wednesday, Andover won in its home opener against Middlesex.
Jackie Dill ’27 explained the circumstances around the penalty call, which caused Andover to lose the game. Dill commented that the tension was high and the referee was indecisive in their call.
Dill said, “The ball was in the box, and one of our midfielders was defending a forward from the other team… The ref[eree] said that she had hands on her back, and called a penalty kick, which caused us to lose the game. But the call was kind of like a toss-up, and the ref[eree] wasn’t sure about it.”
After the game, Emily Decker ’26 emphasized the team’s determination to bounce back after its loss. Before playing Middlesex, the team’s captains, Hayden Fischer ’25, Ava Davey ’25, and Emily Mara ’25, led the team with enthusiasm and energy.
“With the Rivers game being so close and having the last minute call, there was a lot of energy throughout the team going into the game against Middlesex and that really helped us to score first because we were motivated.”
After the Middlesex game, Decker applauded Ashley Dimnaku ’28, who started and played the 90-minutes as a Junior.
Decker said, “Ashley Dimnaku, the new Freshman, did a really good job throughout the whole game of keeping us high energy and getting forward in the midfield.”
After the season openers, Murathime Daisley ’26 reflected on the team’s strengths and weaknesses. The team did well in getting touches in the opposing field’s box, especially in the final third of the game. However, Daisley noted that the team will continue working on passing to covering more of the horizontal field.
Daisley said, “We could work on seeing the whole field. I feel like we play one side for the majority of the game, and it just gets really easy to lock down. [We need to work on this] especially because we have a really good ability to swing the ball and we have good people who can cross the ball very well.”
However, Daisley acknowledges the talent of each player on the team and looks forward to building team chemistry by using those individual strengths.
“But I think that piecing it together now, like piecing all of our strengths together is kind of the [important] part because we have so many different strengths, but I feel it’s just going to take a little bit of time for us to understand how we can play with each other.”
Girls Soccer plays Loomis Chaffee away on Saturday.
