Andover Girls Volleyball demolished BB&N in a three-set victory, 25-8, 25-11, 25-11 on Wednesday. After a challenging win against Choate Rosemary Hall on Saturday, Andover came together with unequalled teamwork, killer serves and mental endurance to solidify its 7-0 record. Andover has gone down early and made comebacks all season, so this powerful win was a huge sign of improvement. Andover came out strong with a 15-1 lead in the first set, and set the pace for the rest of the game. “I don’t think they [the girls] felt threatened, so they went for it. And when they go for it, I think they maintain their momentum,” said Coach Clyfe Beckwith. In the second set, there was a little more back and forth passing between Andover and BB&N, but powerful serves from Annette Bell ’16 and Kate Wincek ’14 kept Andover from going down and gave the team an easy 25-11 win. In the third set, Veronica Hildenbrand ’14 served nine consecutive unreturned service points and propelled Andover to a 10-0 lead. Lucia McGloin ’13 pushed Andover ahead even further to 15-1 with four topspin serves. Andover went on to handily win the set and the game. “We’ve been working in practice about not dropping our energy. We’re starting to really use that in games so we don’t fall down again,” said Alex Becker ’15. “I made a lot of lineup changes,” said Beckwith. “They’ve never practiced those lineups before, so they were really communicating well.” “I really liked that we did one set of just Seniors and one set of non-Seniors,” said Wincek. Despite earning a 3-1 win over Choate, Andover had a hard time keeping up its momentum and finishing off the very close game. “We would win the sets that we started off way behind in, and in the third set we started well but didn’t finish,” said Olivia Bren ’13. After Andover fell behind in the first set, killer serves from Wincek helped the team come back from 3-7 to 6-7. Andover then lost pace with Choate, dropping to 14-21, but Wincek’s nine consecutive service points closed the gap, and Andover managed to snag the first set 25-23. In the second set, Andover was down 19-14 and came back again thanks to the hard serves of McGloin and Annette Bell to close off the set 25-22. Andover pulled ahead in the third set, but lost momentum, and Choate won the set 24-26. In the fourth set, Choate initally pulled ahead with a 6-1 lead, but Andover turned the tables with strong serves from Wincek. “The Saturday game was sort of off. We did a good job of coming back when we needed to, but we shouldn’t have been down in the first place,” said Captain Alexi Bell ’13. “I think it’s definitely a learning process over the course of the season. Overall, we’re starting to come together a lot more, hitting our stride as the season goes on,” Alexi Bell continued. Andover looks to sustain its undefeated season at home against Dana Hall tomorrow.
