Last Friday night ‘Under the Lights,’ the Girls Varsity Field Hockey team faced Loomis-Chaffee in its second official game of the season. Andover pulled through with a 1-0 victory, much in part to a rock-solid defensive effort and strong midfield connections. Andover’s game against Harvard JV turned into a scrimmage due to a low Harvard turnout. Andover’s defense had been able to demolish any offensive threats in its previous games, but Loomis was by far the strongest team Andover faced all season. Loomis was able to penetrate deep into Andover’s defense zone, but Co-Captains Jevan Jammal ’06 and Megan Montecalvo ’06 helped Andover hold Loomis to only two shots on goaltender Ale Moss ’07. Determined to jump ahead early, Andover scored the first and only goal seven minutes into the game. Off a corner, Lauren Jackson ’07 got the ball to Whitney Annicelli ’06. Sweeping through the offensive zone, Lindsay Moramarco ’06 blasted a shot into the net off a pass from Annicelli. Though Andover’s key offensive and defensive players performed big, the shutout and constant offensive pressure were due to the effort and solid play of the entire team. Annie Boylan ’07 added intensity to Andover’s defense while Caroline Moore ’07 helped Andover avoid many serious Loomis Chaffee threats. On the offensive side of the ball, Ali Zindman ’07 was on full tilt for the entire game. Hoping to finish its last exhibition game of the season, Andover showed up to Harvard this Wednesday to find a non-existent team. Originally, only four Harvard girl JV field hockey players showed up for the scrimmage. Though more trickled in as their labs and classes ended, the whole match turned into a slightly more intense practice. Andover players filled in for the absent Harvard players and the score was as meaningless as the trip to Harvard itself. Annicelli said, “As our coach said, ‘Every game we should go out there and try to get better and feel like we got a little bit better and accomplish something.’ Today that was not the case.” One positive aspect of the trip was the field on which Harvard plays. Andover got valuable playing time on an artificial turf field that the team otherwise would not have seen for the entire regular season. This is meaningful because the tournament is played on artificial turf.
