With a grand total of sixty-four assists this week, Melissa Yan ’10 led the Andover Girl’s Volleyball team to victory on Wednesday over a previously undefeated Hotchkiss team. Andover won decisively 3-1, improving its season record to 9-0 and remaining the single undefeated team in the league. Hard hits and spectacular defense were seen on both sides of the net, and the scoreboard reflected the high-level of competition present throughout the match. Nevertheless, Andover was able to gain an advantage and defeat an impressive Hotchkiss squad. Set number one was tied a total of nine times with seven lead changes. Trailing 21-19 late in the game, Andover managed to pull into the lead at 23-22. Hotchkiss refused to back down, however, and evened up the game at 24-24. With the game on the line, Katy Svec ’10 stepped up to the service line to deliver the final blow. Her serve brought Andover to victory, with a final score of 26-24. Set two was tied five times early on, but after the score was 12-12, Hotchkiss took control of the game’s momentum. Andover fell behind and was unable to jumpstart a comeback, falling to Hotchkiss 17-25 to tie the match at 1 set each. After another head-to-head third set, Hotchkiss finally took the lead at 20-19. Yan brought Andover back into contention with spectacular service, tying the score back up at 22-22. After the teams swapped points to tie the set at 24-24, Cristina Mommsen ’09 stepped up to serve. She gave Andover the side-out point and finished serving in the set for Andover’s victory. During set four, Andover came out strong to take a 5-0 lead and refused to relinquish the lead for the remainder of the match. Hotchkiss never got closer than three points as Andover finished out the final set 25-16, giving the team the match victory. Meghan McCafferty ’10 led Andover with thirteen kills and two stuff blocks out of the team’s five total blocks. Yan had forty-three assists as setter and four ace serves out of fifteen service points. Captain Isabelle Engelsted ‘09 had fifteen service points, and Mommsen led Andover’s defense with twenty saves and twenty-eight digs. This past Saturday Andover traveled to Northfield Mount Hermon and came out with a 3-0 victory. NMH proved to be a more worthy opponent than the first time the teams met earlier in the season, playing competitively in all three games. During one point, the ball was rallied back and forth over the net a remarkable twelve times. The final scores of the three games were 25-14, 25-22, and 25-17, respectively. Captain Engelsted led Andover with nine kills, and Mommsen had an impressive match with four aces, 13 service points, and 21 digs.
