Andover Ultimate continues to soar forward on an upward trend, sweeping its two Sunday games 15-1, 15-2 at the Amherst Invitational last weekend.
After the Invitational, the team then went on to put up a tough fight against seasoned opponent Masconomet last Wednesday, falling just short of a win with a close 12-15 loss.
This week, Andover Ultimate came back stronger than ever to avenge a 3-11 loss earlier in the season with a decisive 12-11 victory over Somerville.
“What I’ve noticed is there have really been two Andover Ultimate teams this season,” said Charlotte Doran ’13. “There was Pre-Sunday [of the Amherst Invitational] Andover Ultimate, and there is Post-Sunday Andover Ultimate.”
“That Saturday night, I don’t know what happened to everybody, but suddenly we started clicking as a team,” she continued.
With most of the key returning players unable to play last Saturday due to SAT testing, the team took the opportunity to pinpoint its weaknesses and accumulate valuable learning experience before returning full-force the next day.
“We were unable to capitalize on our opportunities on the field and ended up making silly mistakes as a result of our frustration. Much of Ultimate is a mental game and we really struggled with that aspect of the sport on Saturday,” said Anjali Krishnamachar ’13.
She continued, “Sunday was a completely different story. We were on fire from the start…we were a totally different team and approached each game with intensity and a winning mentality.”
“We were mentally tough enough to put the previous games behind us and start a new day, a new game,” said Co-Captain Piper Curtis ’13.
The team thrived on this wave of momentum, playing one of its best games of the season against Masconomet. Masconomet is one of the most experienced teams in the league.
“We kept calm, we didn’t rush with the disc, we valued possession and we really made sure to look out for each other and have a good view of the field so we could watch things develop,” said Jordan Swett ’15.
Swett skillfully delivered a clean end zone layout in the game.
Up against Somerville’s tight three-person cup defense, Andover utilized skills learned in practice to break the cup and move the disc.
“We struggled at first, but we got used to it,” said Cam Morose ’13. “What the handler does is instead of throwing up [the field] since it’s blocked by the cup, he resets it behind him and they swing it to another person up the field so the cup has to move, which gets the cup really tired.”
Despite its improvement, Andover Ultimate will continue to work hard in preparation for NEPSULs.
“We’re good at catching hard ones and dropping easy ones,” said Rem Remmel ’14. “We need to focus more; it’s about preparing for the game now.”
