4/4 – Andover: 3, NMH: 0
This past Saturday, Boys Volleyball (3–0) extended its winning early-season streak with a shutout victory against Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH). While aggressive serving runs and strong momentum fueled this game, the team still hopes to improve some areas of its play ahead of tougher matchups later in the season.
Jonathan Oh ’27 highlighted Kai Szanton ’26 for his impressive serves, many which were aces, in the game that contributed to the team’s success.
“[Kai] went on a very long run of serves where he was [serving aces] and putting really hard serves down. He had a jump top serve instead of going for a float serve, which is a lot more aggressive and risky, but he was getting every single one of them in. Every time it went in and got like an ace, and everyone got fired up. NMH’s [performance in serving] wasn’t the best, so we took advantage of that. Since we were winning so many points off the first touch or second touch, it pushed the momentum for the entire game,” said Oh ’27.
Warren Oh ’28 shared his admiration for Andover’s confidence and enthusiasm, notably in the face of a strong opponent like NMH.
“We’re a team that can adapt very well and play to our competition. When there’s a really good team, we always rise to the occasion, and when we face a good team, it really excites us,” said Oh ’28.
Despite the team’s dominant performance against NMH, it is still early in the season, and players recognize areas for improvement. Oh ’28 emphasized the need for patience and smarter decision-making when plays are less than perfect.
“When you can’t get a good hit because the set isn’t good, we often will hit into the same spot every time. When we’re hitting something weak because there’s a block up and we can’t get a good angle on our hit, it goes to the same spot, which becomes very predictable,” said Oh ’28.
He continued, “We saw that a lot in Saturday’s game, so being smarter when the set isn’t perfect and having different shots that hitters can use, aside from simply smacking it down, are really important. We should work on being smart with blocking, like tooling the block, which means using the blocker’s hands to kind of get the ball out, and tipping.”
Alex Godsey ’28, a newcomer to the Varsity squad this season, highlighted the importance of strengthening fundamentals on top of possessing strong decision-making skills during matches.
“We need to improve our basic passing and our ability to hit in the system. When the setter gives us a good ball, we should be able to turn those into kills more consistently. That’s something we struggled with against NMH and throughout the season,” said Godsey.
Last year, Andover fell to North Andover High School, and on Tuesday, it hosted the school in a scrimmage. Oh ’28 emphasized the importance of staying driven, pointing to its past season’s loss against the school as motivation.
“Our goal for these upcoming matches is to hone in on bringing the competitive spirit and the championship energy that we need for these upcoming matches because we played North Andover High School, and we lost to them last year, which left a sour taste in our mouths. They’re a good team, and we needed to show our best selves, which means being at practice promptly and practicing the way we play, like we’ll have to against Exeter. We really need to be prepared for the more competent teams. Because we’ve already shown that we were proficient,” said Oh ’28.
Boys Volleyball will play its next regular season game against Wilbraham & Monson (Wilbraham) on Saturday.
