Andover Field Hockey, led by Co-Captains Amy Morin ’14 and Hannah Sorkin ’14, team up with 16 returning letterman with eyes on a New England Prep School title this fall. The team is off to a good start, defeating Tilton in a friendly scrimmage 9-0. Andover had a strong playoff run last year and only lost two players for the upcoming season. The team looks to use its experience to its advantage. There are six returning Seniors, nine Uppers and one Lower. “Our experience should be a strength. We hopefully have learned from the games that got away from us last year due to inconsistency with our intensity and sense of urgency,” said Coach Kate Dolan. “I think we struggled the most last year with getting started because we needed to find our identity as a team and find out how each other worked, but once we did that, we made it all the way to the playoffs, which was awesome,” said Morin. “Going into this year, we will have to bring those same things we learned last year as well as find out who we are as a team this year specifically.” “I am confident that we are not going to be a team with one or two stars carrying the team on their back,” said Sorkin. The girls coming back for their final season as Seniors are Co-Captains Sorkin and Morin, Olivia Cabral ’14, Emma Mehlman ’14, Sarah Marcotte ’14 and Ashlyn Aiello ’14, the team’s goalie. “Ashlyn is amazing, so keep your eye out for her and how many saves she makes and the quality of her saves,” said Sorkin. Joining the team this year will be new Senior Naomi Simpson ’14, Charlie Jarvis ’15, Hannah Cregg ’16 and three Juniors, Lexi Davidson, Beth Krikorian and Lauren Overly. “Everyone is going to contribute to the team-whether in practice, games or on the side lines. On [the team] we really emphasize the fact that everyone contributes to the team one way or another, whether you play every minute in a game or none,” said Sorkin. “Preseason went really well, so I am really excited for the upcoming season,” added Morin. “I think the strength this year is definitely in our numbers. Not only do we have a lot of really talented returners, we have a really promising group of new kids too, and the team is looking really strong together.” This preseason, the girls worked on getting balls to open spaces and on fundamentals such as passing and stickhandling, practices evident in Andover’s first friendly scrimmage at Tilton. “We have been working on taking the ball out of pressure, an d we did a really good job of doing that, also passing backwards instead of trying to force passes,” said Morin. Andover dominated the entire game with goals coming from Hannah Burns ’15, Evagelia Toffoloni ’15, Lexi Davidson ’16, Cabral, Lauren Overly, Kristin Overly ’15 and Katerina Toffoloni ’15. Andover looks to keep the ball rolling against Thayer on Monday in their first home game of the season.
