Despite a slew of scoring opportunities late in the game, Andover Girl’s Hockey was unable to put the puck in the net and fell to a 5-7-1 Brooks team 1-0 in its first home game of the season. “We played well as a team overall in the second and third period of the Brooks game. We outshot and outplayed them, but there is always a certain luck factor in sports, and on Monday we simply didn’t have it,” said Captain Kellie Walsh ’11. Andover came out playing on its heels in the first period, and allowed Brooks to control the tempo of the game. Brooks kept the puck in Andover’s defensive zone for the majority of the period, eventually netting a goal to take the early lead. Andover knew it had to come out and control the pace of the game after the first intermission. In the second period, Andover’s defense was able to beat the puck away from its net, creating a much more back and forth game. In the third period, the team played even more aggressively and created many scoring opportunities, but these efforts fell short in the 1-0 loss. “The third period was by far our best. Even though we lost, the game was in our reach. We had lots of opportunities to score, but we just didn’t finish,” said Cara Daly ’13. Defender Ann Doherty ’11 did an exceptional job holding Brooks to a low number of shots in the second and third periods. Forward Mari Walsh ’11 also played a very impressive game, creating scoring opportunities and drilling the Brooks goalie with multiple shots. In total, Andover had 28 total shots on net. Said defender Catherine Anderson ’12, “Though the win wasn’t ours, we really came together as a team against Brooks. We fought hard and strong throughout the whole game and our fore check was the greatest it’s been this season. We worked really hard, and we should be proud of that.” Earlier in the week, Andover traveled down to Connecticut to play Choate. Despite text-book goals from Summer Washburn ’11 and Mari Walsh ’11, the team lost 8-2. In its recent practices, Andover has been focusing on coverage in its neutral zone, as well as goal scoring. The team will also continue to work on being in sync and working together as a unit in both the offensive and defensive zones. The extra practice on these aspects of the game should help to not only open offensive opportunities, but to finish them. Andover will next face St. Paul’s School this Saturday at home. “We’re really looking forward to playing St. Paul’s this weekend on home ice, and expect to come away with a win,” said Walsh.
