The Andover Girls Volleyball team started off its season strongly by completely dominating the four other teams competing this past Saturday in the annual preseason tournament. Although no score was kept, the Big Blue played solidly the entire day and clearly outplayed all opponents. Captain Cassidy Carpenter ’08 said, “Everyone played really hard. It was a good way to start the season.” The Blue started off the day with an impressive performance against Cushing Academy and continued to play well against New Hampton, St. Paul’s. In the final game of the tournament, Andover took on Exeter. Exeter gave Andover a good game, and this match up will prove to be an important one later in the season. This year’s team includes returners Carpenter, Pia Heilmann ’07, Atima Lui ’08, Erica Bakies ’08, Sarah Bettie, ‘07 Lindsay Maroney ’07, and newcomers Dawson Joyce-Mendive ’07, Meghan McCafferty ’10, Melissa Yan ’10, Isabelle Englested ’07 and Michelle Hollebeke ’08. Lui said, “We have a lot of new talent. I think the freshmen are really impressive, and they step the game up for the underclassmen.” The purpose of the Saturday’s games was not so much to win, but to see how well the team played together and evaluate players in game situations. After graduating five key players last year, this year’s young squad was looking to build up chemistry and establish their reputation as one of the teams to beat in their league, reputation which Andover has held for the past couple of years Heilmann said, “It was evident by play that our team worked really well together but Coach Beckwith was trying different pairs to see who worked best together.” Last week’s games also served as a good warm up for this coming Saturday’s away game against Loomis Chaffee. Andover emerged with a 3-0 victory last year during their home opener versus Loomis, so the Pelicans are looking for revenge. Andover hopes to surpass last year’s unbeaten regular season and finals appearance with a finals win and championship trophy.
