After falling behind early in the first two sets against Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH), Andover Girls Volleyball rebounded to win both sets, securing a 3-1 win to maintain its six-game winning streak. Andover’s record now stands 9-3.
According to Brooklyn Wirt ’20, the team was prepared for a difficult game, especially since NMH had the most five-set games of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference teams this year.
“We were ready for a long game, and our strategy was to pretty much keep playing out the ball,” said Wirt.
Although Andover defeated NMH earlier in the season, this game proved more challenging. The team lacked energy at the beginning of the game and was unable to get off to a strong start, according to Head Coach Clyfe Beckwith.
In an email to The Phillipian, Beckwith wrote, “As a team, we did not play with the usual energy and acute reaction times that we have seen the team achieve. We did not serve consistently throughout the game, nor did we receive serves well.”
Andover rebounded after the first two sets by defending NMH’s blocks, according to Brooke Fleming ’20.
“We did well with covering our hitters in case of a block. NMH had two tall middle hitters, so it was important that we were ready for the ball to come back to our side of the net after our hits,” said Fleming.
In the third set, NMH’s serves allowed the team to win 25-20. In the fourth set, Sophia Slovenski ’18 hit a number of powerful balls that led Andover to victory, according to Wirt.
“Sophia really stepped up her game. She was hitting so well, and she has an insane vertical which allowed her to hammer the other team. It was really good,” said Wirt.
The team will work to play with more precision in the coming games, according to Coach Beckwith.
Coach Beckwith said, “We will prepare by fine-tuning our chemistry (timing of bump-set-spike) and switching up line-ups.”
Andover will travel to play against Deerfield on Sunday.
