After losing on Saturday to Taft 7-5, Andover Girls Lacrosse responded with conviction on Wednesday by blowing out Governor’s Academy 20-7.
“We scored on almost all the shots we took. We also won almost all the draws, so we were able to take control. It was a great game for us to just work on moving the ball on offense and a bunch of different players scored, which was great for our confidence,” said Brooke Van Valkenburg ’12.
Andover grabbed a 13-3 lead with less than six minutes left to play in the first half.
Governor’s scored two goals in the final minutes of the half, but thanks to a Hannah Guzzi ’14 breakaway goal with about 90 seconds remaining in the half, Andover regained momentum.
It looked like Governor’s would score again with about 15 seconds left, but goalie Mallory Tyler ’12 denied a Governor’s attempt and sent Andover into the second half with a 15-4 lead.
“At half time, [Head Coach Kate Dolan] just told us not to underestimate our opponent [and that] we couldn’t write the game off–we needed to stay focused and have intensity,” said Captain Greer McBeth ’12.
The speech seemed to resonate with the players as Andover’s offensive onslaught continued in the second half. Hailey Novis ’13 scored from right in front of the net less than a minute into the half.
Catherine Anderson ’12, Cara Daly ’13 and Lizzie Paul ’12 also found the back of the net before Governor’s scored its first goal of the second half with about five minutes remaining in the game.
Shortly before Andover’s 19th goal, Coach Dolan could be heard calling the play “Yellow” from the sideline.
“When ‘Yellow’ is called, it means that we want to keep control of the ball–no shots. If we just had trouble breaking it out of our end, we’ll call ‘Yellow’ to recollect ourselves and catch our collected breathe. ‘Yellow’ does not mean we stand still and pass the ball around. We are constantly moving in order to occupy our defense,” said Anderson.
Governor’s capped the game with its seventh goal, but Dolan had already instructed her players to ease up minutes earlier.
Amy Morin ’14 said, “With about 12 minutes left, we were supposed to just work the ball around and not score unless we were completely wide open. After that, we only scored one more goal.”
One key to Andover’s success was the absence of Governor’s starting goalie, who is on the national team and will play for Duke next fall, due to a torn ACL.
Despite Andover’s strong performance on Wednesday, Andover struggled at Taft a few days earlier on Saturday and earned a loss that ended its five game winning streak.
“We started the game really strong and scored twice in the first three minutes,” said Hannah Beinecke ’12. “But throughout the game, we didn’t possess the ball well–we had more turnovers than shots. Taft is generally good at fast breaks, but the defense did a good job at preventing them and stopping drives when they had possession.
Beinecke continued, “However, once the defense got the ball, it had a hard time transitioning the ball to the offense. The offense ran plays well, but it did not drive to the net enough.”
Andover will look to improve to a 7-3 record on Saturday against Tabor Academy at 4:00 p.m.
