4/5 – Andover; 16, Deerfield; 10
4/5 – Andover; 14, Greenwich; 4
4/9 – Andover; 11, Exeter; 4
Last Saturday, Girls Water Polo (3-0) began its season winning a double header against Deerfield and Greenwich Academy (Greenwich), where many new players showcased their skills for the first time. To top its successful week off, the team prevailed against Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter) in its home opener on Wednesday.
Facing Deerfield and Greenwich, Addison Deng ’26 stressed the teams offensive ability, specifically highlighting Camden Schopler ’27’s offensive performance and how her previous water polo experience assisted the team’s newer players.
“Everyone was contributing and was wanting to be an offensive threat. I think it’s easy, especially when we have a player like Camden, who is so experienced, to rely on her offensive attacks and what she does and have her be a star attacker, which is also a strategy. I was really proud of how a majority of our team also took their own offensive attacks towards Deerfield and towards Greenwich,” said Deng.
Furthermore, Deng praised Djenabou Bah ’28, who despite having limited water polo experience competing contributed greatly to the team’s success against both Deerfield and Greenwich.
“[Saturday] was [Bah]’s first time ever playing and seeing a live water polo game. But she is really fearless when it comes to playing water polo and she was not afraid to take any shots. She was not scared to hold the ball, and she was always tentative and aware of what the more experienced players on the team were telling her to do, and she would always take the advice really well,” said Deng.
Adding on to the contributions of new players, Audrey Baeten-Ruffo ’28 emphasized how the team still has room to improve as the new players find their role on the team.
“We’re not yet at our full potential because we haven’t had the time to learn everyone on the team, including their tendencies and their style of play. There are certain times in a game where if you know someone likes to make a drive, or likes to hang back, or is really great at getting a dunk, you would be able to play them and create those types of opportunities. Because we’ve only been together for a few weeks at this point, we just don’t know yet, so the team chemistry is not at its full potential. But it’s really good because I see an improvement in almost every practice which was shown on Saturday, and that’s really encouraging to witness,” said Baeten-Ruffo.
Alongside that growth, the team also benefited from some unexpected advantages against Greenwich. With Greenwich short a player due to a previous ejection and only bringing seven total, Andover held a man-up advantage for the game. Camden Schopler ’27 acknowledged how that situation gave the team an edge against its opponent.
“We got really lucky with Greenwich. They only brought seven players to the doubleheader, and one of them got a major offensive foul in their game against Deerfield, which disqualified her from the rest of that game and the next one. So when we played them, it was six of us against five field players, giving us a man-up advantage against one of the strongest teams in the league,” said Deng.
Following its double header, to Baeten-Ruffo, against Exeter on Wednesday the team entered the pool with determination fueled from its past two wins.
“The atmosphere was great, and everyone was happy to be there. Everyone was excited after our wins at Deerfield last weekend and we were also very focused. The bench was cheering on the players in the pool and the pool players were giving it their all,” said Baeten-Ruffo.
Schopler highlighted the team’s strong defense as key to creating scoring chances but noted areas for improvement. She pointed to the need for more momentum on drives and better awareness to prevent counterattacks, especially against teams like Exeter that rely on cherry-picking.
“One of our strengths is we had good defensive plays, so we’re able to shut them down on defense and get open on offense to make a lot of goals. One of our weaknesses [is that] we need to work better also on driving, getting more momentum, and also being wary of when somebody’s about to shoot and looking behind so that we don’t have a counter attack and we get scored on. Also there was a lot of cherry picking this game by Exeter. So we need to work on how we can combat that for the next time we play Exeter so we’re not playing five vs. five on one end,” said Schopler.
Looking forward, Schopler noted that in the coming weeks, Girls Water Polo will focus on team organization around the pool.
“We should be working on setting up and making sure that if somebody is coming down the pool with a defender way behind them, they’re open. Working on clearing, getting open, and just improving in total,” said Schopler.
With a two-week period without games, the team will continue play on April 23 against Greenwich Country Day School.
