Quiana Bell ’26 rushes down the field.
Co-Captain Kiera Harder ’23 passes the ball.
With an early goal in the first quarter, Girls Field Hockey beat Deerfield 1-0 on Saturday. Following its Deerfield game, the team scored against Nobles & Greenough (Nobles) on Wednesday, but conceded a goal in the third quarter, forcing the game into overtime which ended in a 1-1 tie. Andover Field Hockey now stands at 12-1-1.
According to Ava Murphy ’24, the team faced offensive struggles throughout the game against Deerfield. However, she noted that Ellie Parker ’25 kept Andover in the game with consistent saves in goal.
“I think we all played defense together, we didn’t generate a lot of offense, but we all stuck together as a unit to keep it out of the middle, that was our game plan, to stay together as a unit, and play collective defense. We knew it was going to be a hard game,” said Murphy.
Deerfield presented a strong challenge according to Zori Warren ’23. Despite the difficulties they faced, Andover was able to initiate a crucial breakaway to secure the game.
“Our game against Deerfield was a really competitive one; Deerfield was a strong team, and much of the game was played in the center 50 yards of the field with both teams’ offense and defense working hard to push the ball forward. We were able to break through and score–which was a super exciting moment for the team. The game remained close–and very exciting–through to the last buzzer,” wrote Warren in an email to The Phillipian.
Maren Boyle ’26 highlighted a play between Co-Captain Shea Freda ’24 and Molly Boyle ’25 that put Andover on the board early in the Nobles game.
“Our captain, Shea, she had [the ball] in the center field, and she made a really good move around a defender, and then she passed it to the top of the circle where Molly, the forward, kind of one-timed it, and it went high middle for the goal,” said Boyle.
Despite the team’s specific successes, they were faced with offensive challenges late in the game against Nobles, according to Claire Colvin ’23. Colvin described a lack of offensive opportunities in overtime and added that the team could have been more controlled.
“It became 1-1, and people were literally frantic by the end of the game, and then it went into overtime. We maintained possession for most of it, but we still weren’t getting that much offense, we weren’t in the circle. We were just kind of setting the ball around, but we didn’t get many shots in overtime. There were no corners or anything,” said Colvin
Colvin mentioned that the team’s offense could have been stronger against Nobles with improved collaboration and better passing, which will be a focus going into the upcoming game.
“We did play well. Nobles is just a really good opponent. I think we just needed to connect more and work smarter and not harder, because I felt like we had a good amount of effort, but we weren’t executing, because we weren’t making easy passes, I think a lot of the time there were a lot of individual efforts,” said Colvin.
Andover Field Hockey will play at Cushing on Saturday.
