Meghan Hartnett ’07 scored the Girls Varsity Soccer team’s only goal in a tough end of the regular season for Andover. The excitement surrounding Andover/Exeter weekend ended in an anticlimactic scoreless tie on Saturday. Regardless, Andover qualified for the championship tournament, entering as the third seed. The joy was short-lived, however, as Andover was eliminated in the quarterfinals, losing to Milton 2–1 at home on Wednesday. Andover went into Saturday’s game with a record of 7-3-2 against Exeter’s 12-3-1 record, promising a close match. Captain Roxanne Knapp ’07 said, “We played really well,” and that the two teams were “pretty evenly matched.” Even though Exeter had a better record, they played weaker teams during the regular season, meaning the rival teams were evenly matched. “Our teamwork was definitely good” Emily Kennedy ’07 said. “Ten more minutes of game time [and] we could have put one in” said Sarah Dewey ’07. “We both had some chances.” Andover could not capitalize on these opportunities, but neither could Exeter. The game between rivals ended in a 0–0 tie. “Exeter was good, [they] had a really good forward” said Roxy Knapp ’07. Regardless of the tie, both teams qualified for the championship tournament along with Loomis, Nobles, Brooks, Milton, Hotchkiss, and Choate. Andover’s first game in the tournament was against Milton for a chance to move into the semifinals. Andover came in seeded 3rd, a relatively high ranking. “We were so much better,” said Dewey. “We played really well, everyone just put in 100 percent.” Andover ended the first half tied 0 – 0 and was dominating the game. Early in the second half, Andover took the lead off Hartnett’s goal with an assist from Captain Katharine Lee-Kramer ’07. It was a huge relief after the constant pressure Andover had kept on Milton. Then, with 10 minutes left in the game, Milton scored two goals in a row. “We thought we had it in the bag” said Kennedy, “People got too overconfident.” The 2-1 loss to Milton concluded the team’s season. “It was a tough one,” said Kennedy, dissapointed at having suffered elimination after being so close. “We played really well, we just got unlucky at the end,” said Dewey. The unhappiness was even more intense because of the fact that this was almost half the team’s last game for Andover. The team had 11 seniors, including PG’s. Knapp, expressing her feelings about her last game with the team, said, “This team’s amazing, our goalie’s amazing, it’s just a great group of girls. [The] perfect team to end with.” Dewey expressed similar thoughts, saying, “I’m really proud of the way we played our last game.” For some, though, this might not be their last competitive soccer game. Kennedy says “a lot of the schools on my list are Division III,” making soccer an important part to her college selection process. The team finished the season with an admirable record of 7-4-3, and next season looks even more promising.
