Sofia Traversari Sotomayor ’23 (pictured above) is the starting goalkeeper for Andover Girls Soccer.
After a long week of games, Andover Girls Soccer finished with a loss, a tie, and a win. Its game against Rivers on Saturday resulted in a 0-1 loss, whereas Monday’s game versus Pingree ended in a 1-1 tie. Andover earned its second win of the season on Wednesday, with a 3-2 win against Middlesex.
In preparation for each of the three matches, the team focused on errors that were made during previous games and focused on improving in those areas for coming games, according to Emily Mara ’25.
“During practice, we usually review our last game that we played and move forward. We usually start with a warm-up stretch and practice on things that we want to work on during the game,” Mara said.
According to Jazzy Cormier ’24, the game against Rivers was the most challenging of the three because they were one of the team’s biggest competitors. Cormier notes that, after not scoring against Rivers despite having many chances, the team should improve on creating more chances and also being more clinical with their opportunities.
Cormier said, “We’re very strong as a team, but I think what we would need to work on would be just taking those chances in front of the goal. I mean, usually we have a lot, but [against Rivers,] we played a really tough team, so we didn’t have a lot of chances. And I’m part of that because I’m an attacker, so I need to work on that too.”
Though the team seeks to improve in the attacking third, according to Cormier, one of its strengths was transitioning from offense to defense and recovering from various situations that it had encountered during practice.
Cormier said, “As far as [what we did] well, I think our defensive line is really good [and] very strong. We worked on that a lot during practice; just kind of like maneuvering different situations and how to recover and cover for other defenders. I think it [showed] a lot in the games and we [did] very well with that.”
Following Andover’s victory on Wednesday, the team selected Lulu Rourke ’22 as the ‘player of the game.’ According to Mara and Tori Darling ’22, Rourke was a key player during the win, but also the Monday draw against Pingree.
“She played the whole game and was a key part of our defense during the game,” Mara said.
In a letter to The Phillipian, Darling added, “Lulu Rourke [played] a new position (left fullback) and [stopped] every ball, making weak-side runs and sending amazing balls to our offense.”
In search of its third win of the season, Andover will next play at home on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against Loomis Chaffee.
