The combination of Captain Cassidy Carpenter’s ’08 assists and Dawson Joyce-Mendive’s ’07 kills helped Andover beat New Hampton in a difficult match this past weekend. New Hampton started out strong, winning the first eight points of the match. New Hampton’s fierce serving and solid blocking led to a win in the first set, with a final score of 23-30. In games two and three, Andover played tougher, breaking down New Hampton’s defense. With the expert serving of Lindsey Maroney ’07, Joyce-Mendive, and Isabelle Engelsted ’09, Andover overpowered New Hampton, and won 30-23 and 30-21, respectively. Andover lost game four, the closest set of the five games. It looked like a typical game from the beginning, with Andover winning the first four points and taking a 4-0 lead. New Hampton came back, scoring seven out of the next eight points until the score was 5-7. New Hampton continued to play strong and won the set with a score of 27-30. Game five was tied at three points, then six, seven, eight, 10, 11, and 13. Both teams felt the pressure because this game would only go to 15. New Hampton won the next point and was just one serve away from winning the game and ruining Andover’s undefeated record. Andover got a side out on that serve and scored the final point, beating New Hampton. Andover retained its unbeaten record, upgrading to 7-0. In this match, Captain Carpenter made almost fifty assists, served four aces, served 19 for 22, stuffed once, and blocked two for three. Joyce-Mendive made the most kills, an astonishing 23, hit 37 for 46, tied with Carpenter for ace numbers, served 15 for 18 and blocked 1 for 1. Atima Lui ’08 made nine kills, hit 18 for 27, and also had four aces, and served eleven for fifteen. Engelsted ’09 had 13 aces, 13 kills, hit 19 for 22, and served 24 for 27. Andover played an undefeated team from Portland, Maine in a home scrimmage on Monday. The opposition was 67-0 before the scrimmage, but Andover gave it its first loss in three years. After that, Andover played Exeter in a league match on Wednesday. In game one, Andover had a big lead of 17-11 before Exeter surged ahead and the score became 22-21. However, Andover regrouped and finished the set strong, winning with a score 30-24. In the second game, Exeter took a lead of 10-2. Again, Andover regrouped, discussed strategies and then tied the game at twelve points. After one minor point from Exeter, Andover surged ahead to a 20-14 lead that Exeter could not overcome. In game three, Andover started up five points at 1-6, and then it was tied at 12-12, then 16-16. Andover then built up their lead to eight points and finished the set winning 30-22. Megan McCafferty ’10 said “I think it’s really great how well we played as a team [against Exeter]. Even though some people got hurt, other people did a really good job stepping in for them.” Michelle Hollebeke ’08, when asked if she thought the team could keep their undefeated status all year, said, “Of course, no matter what.”
