The Andover Girls Hockey squad suffered a tough loss against Brewster Academy last Wednesday, falling behind 5-0 in the final period after a close first period. After struggling through a five-loss streak in the Taft tournament over Winter Break, the team got right back on track with hard practice when it returned for the new term. Anticipating tight competition from Brewster, Andover especially focused on passing and conditioning in its last few practices. Andover’s extra work proved beneficial during the first period. The team passed smoothly and defended its goal well, only giving up one goal to Brewster in a back and forth game. Ann Doherty ’11 said, “Our neutral zone play in the second period did not allow us to generate any offense. However, we had some good opportunities in the first period.” However, in the second period, Andover had a harder time defending its goal. The team’s strategy lacked aggressiveness, and that kept the puck in an offensive position for Brewster, giving them the advantage and allowing Brewster to net three additional goals to bump the score up to 4-0. Nat Sohn ’11 said, “They are a very skilled team and they played very well; however, the final score does not show how capable we are playing against strong teams like Brewster. More confidence in our playing ability will make a significant impact in how we play.” Despite falling behind in the second period, Andover picked up its game going into the fourth. Brewster was only able to score once in the third period, still leaving Andover behind in the final game score of 5-0. “We were not able to play consistently. Our first and third periods were significantly stronger than our second, which is when Brewster scored most of their goals,” added Sohn. Andover will continue to focus on team plays and movement in the coming days of practice. The team will next travel to square off against Choate Rosemary Hall this Saturday.
