| Saturday, May 27 |
The PA track and field squads had another great day on the Sorota Track Saturday, recording convincing victories over Exeter in both the boys' and the girls' meets and setting two new school records. the Big Blue girls defeated the Red 86-59, while their male teammates won by a 93-52 margin. The JV boys followed suit, too with a 100-43 victory. Merzudin Ibric ran 21.8 in the 200 meters to set a new school and Andover/Exeter record, and later Zoom, as he is known to his teammates, joined Greg Hsu, Chad Hollis, and Jason Soule to set another school and Andover/Exeter record, this time in the 4 x 400m relay with a time of 3:21.2.
Except for the misleading final score, the last game of the 2006 Andover baseball season was one of the best ballgames played at Phelps Park in years. Meeting for the third time this season, the Andover and Exeter teams, both stinging from disappointing losses in the league tournament a week earlier, played a 16-inning epic. The Blue fell behind early 5-0 as senior lefty Matt Boylan struggled without his best stuff, but the team battled back against Exeter’s Phil Negus. Tommy Arrigg drove in two runs with a 2-out single in the bottom of the third to get PA on the board at 5-2. In the fifth Tom Dignard was on base with his third straight hit when Boylan’s RBI single made it 5-3. Meanwhile Arrigg, who relieved Boylan in the fourth inning, was able to silence the Exeter offense, allowing only one baserunner past first base in innings 4 through 7. Facing a 2-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh, the Blue was glad to have Dignard leading off the inning, and the captain responded with his fourth straight hit, a single to center. When J.R. Santaniello followed with a grounder that the second baseman misplayed then threw away, putting runners on second and third with no outs, the Exeter skipper opted to remove a tiring Negus in favor of Ryan Lapointe, another hard-throwing right-hander. Andover would not quit, however, and with one out Joe Smith singled to center tying the game at 5-5. Smith stole second to put himself in scoring position but could advance no further. Over the next eight innings, first Arrigg and then Santaniello for PA and Lapointe for PEA matched goose-eggs as neither team could score to break the tie. Arrigg was dominant, allowing just four hits and 2 walks in an astonishing 10 innings of relief. He and Santaniello were supported by some outstanding Big Blue defense. The home team played errorless baseball from the third inning to the fifteenth highlighted by several great catches by Chris Bramwell in center and Smith in left and by two magnificent plays by shortstop Mike Ciummei, a long throw from the hole in the 11th and a leaping stab of a liner for the first out in the 14th. Meanwhile the PA offense kept generating opportunities to score, with runners on base in every inning, but Lapointe came up with big outs when he needed them including 12 strikeouts over his 9 innings of work. Unfortunately for the Blue, the battle ended in the 16th when 5 errors led to 5 runs for the Red, and they could not respond in the bottom of the frame. It was a disappointing ending to be sure, but the final score cannot diminish the outstanding effort and the great courage on display at the old ball yard on the last Saturday in May.
Seniors Dan Wagman and Michael Li were seeded second in doubles at the 2006 New England Prep School Invitational Tennis Tournament, and they lived up to their seedings in match play Saturday, May 27th. After a bye in the first round, they met Justin Klee and Andrew Powell of the Williams School in New London, and dispatched them to the consolation rounds, 10-1, playing almost perfect service games. Their next opponents were Baris Sevine and David Zackheim of Hopkins, and the Blue pair won convincingly 6-3, 6-1. All that remained were Eliot Jia and Ben Gettinger of Choate, the first seeds, and the match shifted a number of times, with the Choate duo prevailing 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Elsewhere in doubles play, Andrew Chan and Matt Schubert beat the doubles pair made up of the number one and two singles players from Salisbury, Chuck McConnell, formerly of Groton, and Walker Phillips, 10-8. They then fell to a Salisbury doubles pair, two seniors, Mike Katzenberg and Jonas Tinius, 10-5. (Their consolation match-up with Choate's Lanphier and Mullen went the other way as well, 8-5.) Andover's third and fourth singles players, junior Trey Meyer and lower Foster Jebsen did very well in singles, both fighting hard in opening matches before dominating the consolation brackets, against first and second players from a number of schools. Foster fell in the first round of the main draw to Kent's number one, Neima Hadi 11-10 in a tie-breaker and then worked his way to the consolation finals with a definitive win against Sammer Richi of Taft (8-1) and walkovers against Alex Skinner and Eric Malitsky of Brooks. Ninth-grader Trey Meyer had a more complicated day of it, losing in the main draw to Brooks School's number one, Alex Skinner (11-9), and then beating Loomis Chaffee's Josh Roer 8-4, Kent's number one Hadi, 8-0 and Trinity Pawling's Dan O'Connor, 8-2 to join Foster in the consolation final, which will be played amicably at Andover this week. The Andover squad and Coach Wilkin heard many comments throughout the tournament about their good sportsmanship and respectful competitiveness; Coach Wilkin said he was pleased at that, and at the overall showing, considering that the team had to awake at 5:15 a.m. to get to the site on time. The Andover team would like to thank Choate coach Ned Gallagher and the Choate trainers for making the tournament such an enjoyable day of tennis.
Match Scores -- Semi-finals:
Choate 3 - NMH 2
Andover 3 - Loomis 1 (30-24, 30-18, 29-31, 30-25)
Finals:
Choate 3- Andover 1 (30-22, 27-30, 33-31, 30-26)
Andover came out on fire against Loomis in the first game of the day, notching 10 kills and 4 aces...things looked as good as they had when we reached a new plateau of excellent play versus Lawrence HS last Thursday. In game 2, Peter Yao, primary setter and playmaker, suffered an injury to his right hand and would essentially be out for the rest of the day. Alex Svec filled in admirably as emergency setter and Andover managed a strong showing to wrap up game 2. In game 3, Jason Zhu served 4 straight to put Andover up 11-6, then Howie Kalter served 4 straight to give Andover a 17-9 lead. Then on a combination of Andover's mistakes (serving!) and Loomis learning to read our now limited offense, Loomis managed to come back and tie the game at 25, and forge ahead to win 31-29. In the fourth game, Andover lost the first point but would then not relinquish the lead again, winning the semi-final match, and preparing to rally against the Choate-NMH winner game still in progress on the other side of the divider.
Stats:
Peter Yao: 1 for 1 on hits; 18 assists; 1 ace, serving 13 of 14
Alex Schwartz: 15 kills, hitting 29 of 35; 2 assists; 2 aces, serving 12 of 14; 10 stuffs, blocking 14 of 14
Howie Kalter: 16 kills, hitting 24 of 31; 1 assist; 7 aces, serving 20 of 22; blocking 2 of 4.
Ekow Essel: 8 kills, hitting 15 of 18; 2 stuffs, blocking 5 of 7
Jonathan Lee: 2 kills, hitting 4 fo 7; 1 ace, serving 2 of 8; blocking 1 of 1
James McGuiness: 1 kill, hitting 6 of 8; 1 assist; serving 9 of 11
Wesley Mui: served 10 of 12
Andrew Park: hit 6 of 7; 1 assist; 3 stuffs, blocking 5 of 5
Alex Svec: hitting 1 for 1; 21 assists; serving 13 of 13
Jason Zhu: 2 kills, hitting 2 for 2; serving 13 of 13
Jeff Bakkensen: hitting 2 of 3
Facing Choate in the finals, Andover tried a 5-1 rotation with Alex Svec setting both power hitters Alex Schwartz and Howie Kalter on the outside. That left Andover with crucial gaps blocking a hard hitting Choate squad, and the Blue lost the first game rather decisively. In game two and three Andover went to game plan B and had Howie Kalter set. The distinct advantage was that Howie Kalter could now provide a block, in combination with middles Alex Schwartz and Ekow Essel for Andover that had not been seen this season, though Howie's hits on the outisde were now sorely missed. Andover won game 2 (using the maximum of 15 subsitutions), and put Choate on warning that we were not going to relinquish a run for the title that easily. In game 3 the teams exchanged the lead and would tie each other up 12 times...the final points going as follows: Choate 27-Andover 26, 27-27, 28-27, 28-28, 28-29, 29-29, 30-29, 30-30, 30-31, 31-31, 32-31, 33-31 (again Andover finsihed with the maximum of 15 substitutions). Game 4 would have the teams tie at 13, and again at 19, but thereafter Choate would pull ahead to win the championship by a score of 30-26.
Team stats:
Alex Schwartz: 26 kills, hitting 49 of 64; 3 assists; 5 aces, serving 16 of 22; 7 stuffs, blocking 22 of 24
Howie Kalter: 8 kills, hitting 20 of 21; 37 assists; 1 ace, serving 14 of 14; 3 stuffs, blocking 15 of 17.
Ekow Essel: 6 kills, hitting 28 of 30; 6 stuffs, blocking 21 of 23
Jonathan Lee: 2 kills, hitting 20 of 22; 1 assist; serving 11 of 13
James McGuiness: 1 kill, hitting 6 of 6; 1 assist; serving 18 of 20
Wesley Mui: hitting 1 of 2; served 12 of 12
Andrew Park: 3 kills, hitting 8 of 9; 3 stuffs, blocking 11 of 11
Alex Svec: hitting 1 for 1; 8 assists; serving 6 of 6
Jason Zhu: 1 kill, hitting 3 of 4; serving 11 of 13
Jeff Bakkensen: 2 kills, hitting 7 of 10; 3 stuffs, blocking 5 of 6.
WHAT A TREMENDOUS SEASON (8-3), more successful than any other Andover boys volleyball team to date and with the potential to have achieved more. Thanks to the fans for all the support, thanks to the managers Emily Mortara, Cassidy Carpenter, Sarah Thomas for running the show, thanks to assistant coach Mika Latva-Kokko for his support and taping of games. Good luck to seniors Wesley Mui (2 years), Andrew Park (1st year), Jeff Bakkensen (1st year), Emily Mortara and Sarah Thomas. To the rest of the crew: spruce up your jokes, and I look forward to horsing around with you again in spring of 2007.
Thanks to co-captains 2006 & 2007 Howie Kalter and Alex Schwartz. Alex is the MVP winner for the season by virtue of his position of middle hitter 163 kills for the season, that's 3.9 kills per game, 33 aces served, and 121 stuff blocks, that's 2.88 stuff blocks per game. Howie Kalter notched 127 kills for the season and 49 assists. Ekow Essel recorded 58 stuff blocks for the season, 3.00 per game. Peter Yao is credited with 319 assists and serving 90% for the season.
The JV1 baseball team beat their longtime rivals Exeter by the score of 5 - 2 on the last day of the season. The indisputable star of the game was Glenn Stowell who pitched a complete game. He gave up two runs on five hits (only one after the second inning), walked three while striking out 11. He struck out five in a row over the third, fourth and fifth innings and he struck out the side in the seventh. Offensive stars included Corbin Tognoni, who reached base safely three times, and George Flanagan and Geoff Lynch who each had two hits. The Blue ended the season a disappointing 4 - 6, but did win their last three games on the trot.
The boys JV1 lacrosse team lost to Exeter 6-3 Saturday. In the first half, PA played very
good lacrosse at both ends of the field, and probably should have been up by
a couple of goals rather than even at 2-2 going into the break. A couple of mental
errors and bad breaks hurt the Blue in the second half, although the game was
closer than the final score indicates. Exeter's last two goals came when PA
were pressing defensively near the end to try to regain the ball. It was an
unfortunate game to lose because the boys had such a good season. They're a
great group of kids.
Playing their best tennis of the season, the girls tennis team finished a strong season, earning 13 points and finishing fifth among the top New England Prep Schools competing at Milton Saturday. Lauren Wilmarth played A singles and earned 2 pts as she lost in the finals of the consolation round. She had lost to the eventual winner from Milton in the first round (an unlucky draw). Elena Jacobson played B singles and WON!! earning 8 points for the team. Lucretia Witte and Alyssa Hill played A doubles and lost in the finals of the consolations so earned 2 pts for the team. Yurie Sekigami and Arianna VanSluytman lost in the second round of the consolations, earning 1 pt.
Final standings were:
1) Hotchkiss - 24
2) Milton - 19
3) Exeter - 17
4) BB&N - 15
5) Andover - 13
6) Williston-Northhampton - 12
7) Groton - 10
7) Bancroft - 10
9) Nobles - 7
9) Kingswood-Oxford 7
11) Thayer - 6
11) Loomis - 6
13) Choate - 4
|
| Friday, May 26 |
In the season finale, Andover defeated traditional rival Exeter by a 14-6 score. Andover had a good start with senior Margaret Moore scoring the Big Blue's first goal. Andover held a 3-1 advantage but Exeter answered with a few goals of their own, and with only a minute to go in the half, Andover was hanging on by a slim one-goal margin 6-5. Fortunately for the Big Blue a great passing sequence which finished with a nice goal gave Andover a two goal lead 7-5 at the break. After the half, Andover came out strong and outscored Exeter 7-1 during the second half. Senior Whitney Annicelli had five goals and senior Alyse Kennedy chipped in with three. Co-captain Tess Scott and Jevan Jammal had strong defensive games for the Blue, and co-captain goalie Julie Wadland had 8 saves and many outstanding clears. Like the entire season, it was a great team effort, and each individual played well and gave her all. The team would like to thank all the parents and fans for their generous support throughout the season. The 2006 lacrosse team finishes with a 12-2 record, with the 2 losses coming by a total of three goals. Quite simply, it was an outstanding season - in large part due to the efforts of six terrific seniors: Julie Wadland, Tess Scott, Margaret Moore, Jevan Jammal, Whitney Annicelli and Alyse Kennedy.
On a rainy day at home, the Big Blue took on their traditional rival, Phillips Exeter Academy (who also had an 8-1 record going into the season finale), and emerged victorious. Andover dominated the draw control early, and led 6-2 at the half. Exeter mounted a comeback in the second half, and pulled to within two goals. But the Big Blue dug in, regained control of the passing game, and executed the win. One of the most exciting plays of the game was when goalie Kaitlin Gaiss '09 ran the ball up the field, switched hands, and cleared the ball lefthanded -- the beginning of a great fast break for the Blue. Scoring for Andover: Jamie Harisiades '08 (3 goals), Emily Little '09 (2 goals), Alexa Reid '07 (1 goal, 1 assist), Alissa Fromkin '09 (1 goal), Anna Mackey '09 (1 goal), Nancy Ann Little '08 (1 goal), Liz McDonough '07 (1 goal), Alison Kent '08 (1 goal), and Lisa Lian '08 (1 assist). Gaiss notched 11 saves.
Coaches Joel and Mallick agreed that this was the best JV team they've coached in years. We had a fine group of talented athletes, who improved greatly over the course of the season, and had a lot of fun along the way. Thanks to team managers Annalee Leggett and Kaitlin McInnis for all their help this season. Co-captains Alexa Reid '07 and Jamie Harisiades '08 were outstanding team leaders. We would like to thank uppers Liz McDonough, Katie Morris, Sarah Dewey, and Fay Gao for their dedication to the PA lacrosse program over the years. Finally, very special thanks to all the parents who supported us from the sidelines throughout the season.
|
| Thursday, May 25 |
Today Andover played Lawrence HS in an impromptu scrimmage organized to prepare both teams for their respective tournament matches. In a match that was refereed by coaches, and where no official scorebook was kept, both teams exhibited truly spectacular hitting, and occasionally jaw-dropping defense. We ended the match at 6 p.m. because of time constraints at 2-2 ... LHS vs PA (30-20, 31-29, 21-30, 30-32).
Andover's team stats:
Peter Yao: 1 kill, hitting 4 for 4; 46 assists; served 18 of 19; blocked 2 of 4
Alex Schwartz: 28 kills, hitting 36 of 40; served 8 of 14, 6 stuffs, blocking 17 of 18.
Howie Kalter: 7 kills, hitting 14 of 24; 1 assist; 2 aces, serving 16 of 17; 1 stuff, blocking 4 of 4
Ekow Essel: 8 kills, hitting 12 of 15; 13 stuffs, blocking 23 of 24.
James McGuinness: 4 kills, hitting 16 of 18; 1 assist; 2 aces, serving 13 of 15; blocking 2 for 2.
Wesley Mui: 1 ace, serving 4 for 4
Andrew Park: hitting 1 for 2; 1 stuff, blocking 1 for 1
Alex Svec: hitting 1 for 1; 1 assist; serving 2 for 3; blocking 2 for 2
Jason Zhu: hitting 1 for 2; 1 ace, serving 15 for 16
Jeff Bakkensen: o for 1 on hitting; 1 assist.
GOOD LUCK TO LAWRENCE in their tournament game on Tuesday.
Andover travels to Loomis on Saturday to play as the #2 seed versus #3 seed Loomis at 1:45 p.m. The winner will play in the finals versus the winner of #1 seed Choate versus #4 seed NMH. |
| Wednesday, May 24 |
The Boys Varsity Tennis team hosted Exeter on Wednesday May 24th and came away with a convincing 7-0 victory. Dan Wagman and MIchael Li tuned up for the NEPSITT, where they will be seeded second, by beating Exeter's Paik and Frank, 8-1. Meyer and Jebsen sat out the doubles to give Andrew Chan and Matt Schubert a bigger challenge in second doubles so they could prepare for the tournament as well; the result was an 8-2 win over Exeter senior Phil Song and upper Nick Maisel. At third, Toby Clark and Andy West came out ahead by 8-6 over Narang and Ying. The singles results were no less conclusive: Wagman beat David Paik, 6-1, 6-3; Li beat Phil Song, love and love; Meyer beat Nick Maisel, love and love; Jebsen beat ninth-grader James Ying, two and one; Schubert double-bageled Louis Frank; and Chan beat Yashraj Narang, 6-2, 6-3. Andover's record is 9-2 for the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs. The individual tournament will be all day Saturday at Choate. Six Andover players have been invited.
The girls tennis team took on Exeter Wednesday with the Red grabbing some victories in very close matches, several on tie-breakers, to earn a 7-2 victory of PA. Overall, the teams were very evenly matched.
Singles Details:
1) Lauren v Casey Simchik 6-4, 7-6 (7-1)
2) Elena v Ali Comolli 6-3, 6-4
3) Lucretia v Monica Hernandez 6-3, 6-7 (5-7) (6-8)
4) Arianna v Suzanne Michalak 4-6, 2-6
5) Archie v Elizabeth Denis 0-6, 0-6
6) Alyssa v Jennifer Crouch 0-6, 5-7
Doubles Details:
1) Lauren and Elena v #1 and #2 6-3, 5-7, (2-7)
2) Lucretia and Alyssa vs #3 and #5 6-2, 2-6 (5-7)
3) Ari and Archie v #4 and #6 3-6, 3-6
Scores in parentheses are tie-breaks. A tie - break was played if sets split.
The Blue closed out the season with a nail-biting victory that came down to a tiebreaker in the last match. Singles points were earned by Dave Koppel, Joe Wilkin, Bowen Qiu, and Chris Kim. The team of Koppel/Wilkin also won in doubles, but the doubles point went to Exeter as they won the other two doubles matches. A great finale to a great season.
It was a thriller, but the Boys JV Tennis team lost to the Red team by the score of 4-5. We had victory in our grasp & let it slip away. All is O.K. as our guys know "how to take it in stride." Not so true for all at the courts today, however. Many duece points with many points going the "ad-in/ad-out" routine, made it all very exciting.
The girls JV tennis team got their revenge against Exeter today. PA won 6 matches and Exeter won 3 . So the girls in Blue were able to finish with only a single loss on the season, that to Exeter earlier in the season, but today's win balanced it out very nicely.
Travelling to play crosstown rival Brooks on Wednesday, Andover was hoping to give the Bishops their first loss of the season, but it wasn't to be as the Big Blue took a 12-10 loss. It was a great game from start to finish as both teams battled end-to-end for fifty minutes. The first few minutes of the game were erractic as each team was trying to settle into a flow. Andover scored first, but then Brooks opened up a 4-2 advantage before the Blue turned the tables again and took a 6-4 lead into the half. The second half saw Brooks control the draws more often and have a significant edge in possessions. Andover was forced to play defense repeatedly and eventually Brooks took a 7-7 tie and went ahead by two goals. The teams exchanged goals, and Andover was able to pull within one. But with time winding down Andover could get no closer, and Brooks took the game 12-10. Andover is 11-2 on the season, and the team will finish up on Friday at 5:15 when they host traditional rival Exeter. Whitney Annicelli and Annie Boylan led the attack with four and three goals respectively. On defense Andover received outstanding efforts from Kit Harris, Jevan Jammal, Karen Schoenherr, Caroline Moore, and co-captains Tess Scott and Julie Wadland.
In an always exciting match between crosstown rivals, the Big Blue defeated the Brooks JV squad 8-5 today. Scoring for Andover: Alissa Fromkin ’09 (3 goals), co-captain Jamie Harisiades ’08 (2 goals, 1 assist), Dana Feeny ’08 (1 goal), Anna Mackey ’09 (1 goal), Katie Morris ’07 (1 goal), co-captain Alexa Reid ’07 (1 assist), and Kaitlin Gaiss ’09 (1 assist on a goalie clear). As usual, Gaiss was outstanding between the pipes, making 13 saves. The player of the game was Dana Feeny for her excellent play, transitioning the ball in the midfield. Andover improved to 8-1 and looks to finish the season strong at home against Exeter on Friday.
After losing to Milton in the first game of the season 15-2, the JV2 Girls Lacrosse team truly showed how much they have grown as individual players and as a team during their rematch today at Milton. The girls led a majority of the game, thanks to great performances by Kate Measom, Hanna Gully and Victoria Glynn among many others. Milton rallied in the last 10 minutes of the second half to take the lead and ultimately the victory. Despite the 9-6 loss, the JV2 Girls had one of their best games to finish the season on a high note. Great work this season, girls!
JV2 lacrosse lost 8-4 today in a hard fought game against Pinkerton to end their season. The game was closer than the score would suggest as the guys played their best lacrosse of the year and just couldn't seem to find the back of the net. Offensively Jake Beam was a standout moving off the ball, and Dan Silva had his best game of the season, especially in terms of causing turnovers off the ride. Travis Wright worked hard on attack getting loose balls aand driving to the cage. Brian Russell, Edwin Diaz, Joey Atiba, and Eric Kanter showed tremendous heart at midfield. They all worked all over the field for groundballs, played tough D and Brian Russel especially was a standout offensively, as our most effective dodger. On the defensive end Peter Schock was an absolute machine grabbing goundballs and Matt Gaske and James Spang shut down the Pinkerton attackman. Ricky Chen capped off a strong season with another solid game in goal.
|
| Tuesday, May 23 |
Andover High School and Phillips Academy squared off for another boys volleyball scrimmage today, AHS preparing for postseason against Chelmsford, and PA preparing for the 4-team tourney against Loomis, Choate and NMH on Saturday. Andover High took the match 3-1 (30-26, 30-24, 25-30, 30-27)
It felt as if the PA team got some of the mood of the early part of the seaon back again in the latter part of the second game, erasing a slump of the last week and a half. Alex Schwartz and Howie Kalter logged 17 kills apiece, Peter Yao recorded an unprecedented 53 assists, Ekow Essel stuff-blocked 4 hits as well as scoring 7 kills, Jon Lee logged 7 kills. The match was an entertaining show of hard hits and occasionally very lucky defense.
Team stats for the day:
Peter Yao: hitting 8 for 8; 53 assists; 1 ace serving 23 for 24; 1 stuff block
Alex Schwartz: 17 kills hitting 37 of 41; 1 ace, serving 17 of 21; 2 stuffs, blocking 14 of 22
Howie Kalter: 17 kills, hitting 31 of 37; 2 aces, serving 11 of 12; 1 stuff, blocking 5 of 7
Ekow Essel: 7 kills, hitting 15 of 19; 4 stuffs, blocking 13 of 14.
Jonathan Lee: 7 kills, hitting 23 of 24; 1 ace, serving 15 of 20, 1 stuff, blocking 7 of 11.
James McGuiness: 2 kills, hitting 4 of 4; serving 9 of 9.
Wesley Mui: hitting 1 for 1; serving 7 of 9
Andrew Park: hit 2 for 2; blocked 2 for 2
Alex Svec: hit 2 for 2; 1 stuff, blocking 2 for 2.
Jason Zhu: hit 1 for 2; 1 ace, serving 8 for 8
Jeff Bakkensen: hot 1 for 1.
This Saturday #2 Phillips will square off against #3 Loomis at 1:45 p.m. at Loomis while #1 Choate faces #4 NMH. Winners will compete for the 4-Founders cup in it's third season. |
| Monday, May 22 |
In a make up of last week's postponement and with a change of venue, Andover hosted Lawrence Academy in a late afternoon contest. Despite an incredibly slow start, Andover managed to pull out an 11-7 win over a scrappy and speedy Lawrence team. At the outset Andover briefly held a 2-0 lead, but the tide quickly turned and the Big Blue found themselves down 2-4. Andover put a goal in before the half to trail at the break 3-4. PA managed a better second half, but overall it was a tough day for the girls in Blue as the team struggled to sustain any consistent momentum. With the victory, Andover is 11-1 on the season with two games remaing - at Brooks on Wednesday at 2:45 and then home on Friday at 5:15 vs Exeter.
The JV2 Girls Lacrosse team had a tough back-and-forth battle against Brookwood at home which resulted in a 7-7 tie. Thanks to fantastic performances by Alicia Keyes, Emily Kowal, Megan Richards and Caddy Yates, the girls always came up with game-saving defensive and offensive plays across the field.
|
| Sunday, May 21 |
Brooks defeated Andover twice on Sunday in the seven-team, two-day, invitational softball tournament they have co-hosted for the past six seasons to take the championship trophy back to North Andover, but the Blue did themselves proud by battling through injuries to key players to force the Lady Bishops to play at their best. Ironically, in a year of historic flood damage this was the first Big East Tournament to go the distance in three years, as the event has been plagued by rain and even a snowstorm that have prevented completion of the competitive slate. Last year, a Final Four comprised of two undefeated teams and the co-hosts was aborted by heavy rain.
Andover and Brooks have built a hotly-contested local softball rivalry in recent years, and in 2006 they came into the tournament weekend with rain-curtailed but identical 10-2 records. PA, which had played just one game in a three-week span, got the nod as the top seed and the first-round bye that went with it, on the strength of its April 24th 7-4 win over the Lady Bishops. It was fitting that two such evenly-matched teams would advance to the winner-take-all championship game, but first they had to defeat other opponents. Brooks pushed aside Milton Academy, the field’s only sub-.500 team, 8-1, before topping tough Lawrence Academy, 5-2. Meanwhile, in its half of the brackets, Andover beat BB&N, 6-1, in a game featuring a terrific running backhand catch of a liner to right-center field by RF Sara Ho ’08, and a strong performance by P Claire Fox ’06. Just two days prior to the BET, PA suffered the first of what would be two serious injuries when C Stephanie Clegg ’08 hurt her foot during practice, and in the BB&N game, SS Lindsay Maroney ’07 went to the sidelines with a sprained elbow, hurt while diving for a ball in the fifth inning. Clegg was able to play part-time on Saturday and early on Sunday before resuming her position behind the plate, but Maroney was done for the duration. The limited availability of these two players, a potent offensive tandem in the middle of the Blue batting order, significantly weakened Andover’s attack. However, the games went on as they always do, and the bench did its best to rise to this challenge.
Ariana Wilkinson ’06, the team’s backup catcher who had been pressed into duty at first base when Emily Cokorinos ’08 was felled by illness, caught ten innings in the BET, while Veda Eswarappa ’08 and Cokorinos, who was cleared for limited play, shared first base. Captain Melissa Tetreau ’06 shifted from third to shortstop, and Sarah Boylan ’09 moved to 3B from left field. Eswarappa, Kelci Thomasco ’08, Lauren Shevlin ‘08 and even Fox saw action in left field. The pitching chores were shared by Fox, Eswarappa and Boylan, although Fox saw the bulk of the action during the tournament.
When she was hurt, Maroney had already gone 3-for-3 in the first game, including two doubles and an RBI. In the next game, PA was dumped from the winners’ bracket by Brooks, 6-1, despite a fine fielding exhibition by SS Tetreau, who recorded two putouts and six assists. Fox was ineffective and Eswarappa limited Brooks to one run over the final four innings, but the result was never in doubt. Facing elimination, Andover met BB&N again, which had upset Lawrence Academy in the losers’ bracket. By this time, the Knights were out of gas and although they produced a brave effort, especially by their pitcher, their lack of depth at that position caught up with them. PA won, going away, 10-0. In the juggled Andover lineup, Ho went 2-for-4, CF Nicole Duddy ’08 registered three hits, Tetreau added a pair of singles, Clegg chipped in with a single and a double, and Cokorinos and 3B Brianna McCarthy ’09 had one safety apiece.
Having fought its way to the championship game, Andover played the role of the visiting team, since tournament rules granted home privileges to unbeaten Brooks. The Lady Bishops broke through in the third inning when a leadoff walk came back to haunt the Blue. A sacrifice bunt, passed ball and fielder’s choice later, Brooks had a precious lead run. Andover would get at least one runner on base in each of the last four innings but could not break through the Brooks defense. Tetreau led off the fourth inning with a clobbered liner right at the centerfielder who slid to her knees to make sure of the catch, a fine defensive play. Then Clegg singled, but was left on first base. 2B Jamie Love ’06 reached on an error in the fifth, advanced to second on a passed ball but was called out stealing on a disputed call at third base to end the inning.
Brooks picked up a key insurance run in the fifth on a two-out walk, an ill-advised pickoff attempt that went awry, an alert advance to third that beat the throw on a ball that just dribbled a short distance away from the catcher, and a two-strike single to left field. Andover tried to respond right away. Ho led off the sixth with an eight-pitch at-bat that culminated in her reaching on an infield error, but a quick infield popup and a screaming line drive by Tetreau was caught by the second baseman, leaving Ho with no chance to avoid a double play. In the seventh, a one-out walk to Fox kindled some last hopes, but a strikeout and a comebacker to winning pitcher Taylor DiGloria brought Brooks the trophy.
Fox (8-3) was the hard-luck loser in the title game, allowing two runs on six hits, two of them well-placed shallow lob shots, one of them an infield safety, while striking out ten and walking three. Andover could only manage two hits of its own, singles by Tetreau and Clegg, while nine PA batters were set down by DiGloria, who issued only one walk. For Andover (12-4, 2-2 in the tourney), it was a frustrating close call in a great pitchers’ duel, while for Brooks (14-2, 4-0 in the tourney), it was sweet revenge for its April defeat and a well-earned victory. Clegg and Fox were named to the All-Tournament Team, while Tetreau earned Honorable Mention.
With four straight wins including a 13-5 victory over Northfield-Mount Hermon in the final game, Andover claimed the Championship of the New England Prep School Ultimate League Tournament hosted by the Blue on Sunday, May 21. Not only was the team victorious during the games, but they also achieved the third highest Spirit ranking among the eight teams participating in the tourney.
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| Saturday, May 20 |
The PA girls and boys teams both came home from Loomis Chaffee, the site of this year's NEPSTA Div. 1 Track and Field Championship Meet as champions! The Andover boys racked up 127 points to outdistance the field. Individual champions include: Ben Bramhall (1500m), Merzudin Ibric (200m), Jason Soule (300m intermediate hurdles), Charlie Houghton (long jump), and Mario Noyola (pole vault) Meanwhile the Big Blue girls earned 118 points to earn their title. Individual champions include: Abigail King (3000m), Aba Temeng (in both the shot put and discus), and Jennifer Meacham (javelin).
Showing the versatility of the girls’
team, Andover scored in every event. Aba Temeng ’06 was the outstanding
performer of the day for Andover, capturing 20 points with wins in both the
shot and discus. Jen Meacham ’06 hurled the javelin for another first place
and 10 points. PA continued its dominance in the field events, with second
and third place finishes in the triple jump from Jara Crear ’08 and Colleen
Thurman ’07, respectively. After already running a solid 1500, Ali Holliday
’06 came back to place second in the 800. In one of the most exciting and
competitive events of the day, Abby King ’07 burned away her competition on
the last lap of the 3000, followed closely by Breezy Jordan ’09, who lunged
across the finish line to place fourth. For the boys, Ben Bramhall ’07
waited in good position until the end of the 1500, when he broke free from
the pack and cruised to a first place finish. The 200 was another fantastic
race for PA, with Merzudin Ibric ’06 capturing first and Mike Donelan ’08
placing third (and also breaking his own Lower school record). Jason Soule
’06, a strong force in all four events he competed in throughout the
day, placed second in the 110 hurdles and first in the 300 hurdles. Keeping
his cool as usual in the pole vault, Mario Noyola ’06 eased himself over the
bar for another victory. Excelling in both the long jump and the 100-meter
dash, Charlie Houghton ’06 brought home 18 points for PA with a win in the
long jump and second in the dash. With the Big Blue scoring two people in most events, every
member of Andover’s girls’ and boys’ teams had a hand in the two victories.
Seeded first in the seven-team, double-elimination Big East Invitational Softball Tournament it co-hosts with Brooks, the Blue received a bye in the first round, then defeated BB&N, 6-1, in the second round at Andover. The twelve-game, three-field competition opened at both PA and Brooks before shifting to the twin diamonds at Isham. P Claire Fox ’06 had to work out of some difficulty in the top of the first inning, as the Knights loaded the bases with one out on an infield hit, a bloop to right field and a fielders’ choice that resulted in an error when a throw meant to head off the lead runner struck the player sliding into third base. But Fox struck out the next batter and ended the threat on a fly ball to LF Sarah Boylan ’09. From then on, the PA hurler would settle down, only giving up an unearned run with two outs in the fourth inning.
Meanwhile, the Blue bats were rattling, and the first six in the Andover order reached base in the bottom of the first inning, five scoring to open up a 5-0 cushion. CF Nicole Duddy ’08 reached on an error, 3B Melissa Tetreau ’06 walked, SS Lindsay Maroney ’07 doubled to center, DH Stephanie Clegg ’08 singled, Fox walked and Boylan singled to right. Andover left the bases loaded but added its sixth run in the second inning when Maroney doubled again, Clegg reached on an error, Fox walked once more and Boylan reached on a fielder’s choice. Despite a third Maroney double another two-bagger by Fox, a walk and stolen base by C Ariana Wilkinson ’06 and a single and advance on a wild pitch by substitute DH Kelci Thomasco ’08, the Knights were able to keep PA off the scoreboard. Fox earned her seventh win of the season, surrendering five hits, while striking out three and walking none. Andover improved to 11-2 and readied for a rematch with its tourney co-hosts, Brooks.
Andover meets Brooks in the next winners' bracket contest while BB&N and Lawrence Academy face elimination in the losers' bracket. The PA-Brooks winner will be in the championship game, but the loser will have to play the winner of the other morning game to see who also makes the final, a winner-take-all tilt.
Having defeated the Penguins of Cushing Academy twice during the regular season, the Big Blue faced a very tough task on Saturday: trying to beat a good team for the third time in the opening round of the Central New England Prep School Baseball League Tournament at Holy Cross. Unfortunately, Cushing outplayed PA this time and earned a 6-2 victory. After spotting the Penguins a 2-0 lead in the first inning on 2 hits and a walk, PA battled back with single runs in the 2nd and 3rd to tie it a at 2-2. But Cushing's pitcher, Tyler Connolly, silenced Andover's bats, not allowing a base runner over the next four innings, while PA surrendered 2 unearned runs in the 3rd and two more runs on a Connolly double in the 5th. Matt Boylan pitched for PA, working his way out of several jams as he scattered 8 hits while striking out 4 and walking 2. Boylan and J.R. Santaniello had back-to-back hits to open the second inning, but those would prove to be PA's only two hits of the game. Left-fielder Joe Smith and catcher Tom Dignard collaborated for the defensive play of the game in the sixth when a single to left with runners on first and second looked like it would expand Cushing's lead, but Smith's throw was strong and right on the money as Dignard tagged out the runner in a very close play at the plate to end the inning.
In the second first round game of the tournament, Exeter defeated Deerfield 7-3. Cushing then knocked off previously undefeated and first seed Exeter 10-5 in the finals to earn the championship.
The Andover JV2 Baseball team returned to play after two rain-outs and a flood-out, showing fine form against the Pingree JV in winning 6-0. Ryan Sullinvan pitched the complete game for PA, needing but 78 pitches to earn a win in his first outing for the Blue. Not over-powering, Sully relied on his control to stay ahead in the count, and on the defense to make the plays behind him -- and they did. Eight of Pingree's 21 outs came on the first pitch of the at-bat, taking a lot of pressure off the pitcher. Pingree managed six singles and one walk, but Andover's error-free defensive play kept all the base-runners from scoring. Pingree's biggest threat came in the sixth inning, but two stunning plays from center fielder Brian Sykes saved the shut-out. First, he made an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch on a deep wind-blown fly ball over his head. Two pitches later, with a runner at second, the Pingree batter lined a single to center; Sykes came in on the ball and fired a strike to catcher John Nugent at home, who put the tag on the runner trying to score from second.
At the same time, Andover's offense kept constant pressure on the Pingree defense, pounding out twelve hits in their six innings at the plate. K-Y Jin was 3 for 3 (with two doubles), and Jim Ricker, John Nugent, and Eddie Muniz had two hits apiece to lead to PA offense. The big inning was the third, when Andover scored four runs on four hits, two errors, and a costly balk. All pieces of the game came together for Andover in this game. There was strong pitching, timely hitting, and a defense that made all the plays.
Hosting Williston-Northampton, the varsity girls tennis team played a very exciting match on Saturday and emerged victorious by a narrow 4-3 margin. That brings PA's season record to 6 wins and 4 losses. The format for today's match was 4 singles 3 doubles with no repeats which truly tested both teams' depth. Big Blue wins were notched at 2, 3 and 4 singles and #2 doubles. PA's #1 Lauren Wilmarth lost to last year's winner of the NEPSAC tournament - she gave it an excellent fight. Archie Rajender and Carolyn Brown toughed it out to win at 2nd doubles 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 - a thriller.
Singles:
1) Lauren v Charlotte Wilinsky 2-6, 3-6
2) Elena v Genevieve Aniello 6-2, 6-0
3) Lucretia v Jen Tatelman 6-3, 6-0
4) Arianna v Kim Sikorski 6-0, 6-0
Doubles:
1) Alyssa and Yurie vs Liza McHugh and Vickie McHugh 4-6, 1-6
2) Archie and Carolyn vs Kat Cohen & Jess Weiner 6-7, 6-2, 6-4
3) Lizzy Chan & Gina Kim v Deepa Kenia & Kristina Conroy 5-7, 2-6
The girls' JV tennis team played the Brooks JV team at Brooks this afternoon. The two squads played a total of five matches (4 singles and 1 doubles match), with PA capturing 7 of the 10 sets played. Highlights included excellent comebacks by Grace Gordon (1st singles) and Jane White/ Belle Eberhart (1st doubles).
New England Class A Championships, Quarterfinals
Coaches: Jim Macleod, Kent; Greg Wilkin, Andover
Doubles:
1) Wagman/Li (AND) def. Hadi/Wijnberg (K) 8-3
2) Meyer/Jebsen (AND) def. Strader/ Benson (K) 8-3
3) Schubert/Chan (AND) led Bindert/Roth (K) unfinished 5-3
Singles:
1) Daniel Wagman (12) (AND) led Neima Hadi (11) (K)6-4, 5-4 unfinished
2) Michael Li (12) (AND) def. Nick Wijnberg (12) (K) 6-0, 6-1
3) Trey Meyer(9) (AND) led Mike Benson (10) (K) 6-1, 5-2 unfinished
4) Foster Jebsen (10) (AND) led Scott DeSantis (11) (K) 6-4, 1-1 unfinished
5) Matt Schubert (11) (AND) def. Harlan Strader (11) (K) 6-3, 6-0
6) Andrew Chan (10) (AND) def. Dan Drohojowski (12) (K) 6-1, 6-1
Final Score: Andover 4, Kent 0
New England Class A Championships, Semifinals
Coaches: Mike Deseau, Milton; Greg Wilkin, Andover
Doubles:
1) Posner/Trott (M) def. Wagman/Li (AND) 8-4
2) Prophet/Kovic (M) def. Meyer/Jebsen (AND) 8-4
3) Hurst/Michael Chao (M) def. Schubert/Chan (AND) 8-4
Singles:
1) Charlie Posner (M) def. Dan Wagman (AND) 6-3, 6-2
2) Michael Li (AND) def. John Trott (M) 6-1, 7-5
3) Anton Kovic (M) def. Trey Meyer (AND) 6-2, 6-0
4) Trevor Prophet (M) led Foster Jebsen (AND) 7-5, 4-1 unfinished
5) Slater Hurst (M) def. Matt Schubert (AND) 7-5, 6-1
6) Will Newman-Wise (M) led Andrew Chan (AND) 7-6 (7-2), 4-0 unfinished
Final Score: Milton 4, Andover 1
The Big Blue won on the strength of singles victories by Andrew West, Palmer Rampell, Lambros Theofanidis, and Dave Koppel as well as doubles victories from the teams of Rampell/Jin Won Lee and Joe Wilkin/Bowen Qiu.
The Andover boys JV tennis team had an easy time Saturday afternoon against Cushing Academy with all matches going to the PA column. The boys won all 6 singles with scores of 8-0, 8-1, 8-3, 8-5, 8-0, and 8-0. All 3 doubles were 8-0 wins. On to Exeter at home next week.
The boys varsity volleyball team travelled to Northfield Mount Hermon on Saturday and fell to the Hoggers 3-0 (30-28, 30-23, 30-23). Moments before the match there was a tribute to the NMH seniors, which seemed to fired up the home team. Similar to last week when PA played Choate, NMH could do little wrong, and PA could not seem to string together the points when it mattered most. It was a decently played match on both sides.
In game 1, Andover kept playing catch-up, never letting NMH pull ahead by more than 2 points until at 21-19, NMH won the side-out and served three straight points to go ahead 25-20. Andover, having given up 15 points on service, blocking and hitting mistakes, had Wesley Mui serve 3 points to cut the NMH lead to one at 29-28, but lost the next point on a controversial out-call and thus also the first game. The second game, though now more heated in tempo, quickly went NMH's way 0-4, 5-12, 6-16, 15-25. Andover only had 4 hitting mistakes, and 2 serving errors in this game, but committed 9 blocking errors. In game 3 Andover enjoyed a temporary lead at 4-3 when NMH's number 7, a 3-year varsity player, found a hole in Andover's serve-receive formation and served 7 straight times to give NMH the 11-5 lead. NMH's lead would grow to as much 11 points at 22-11. Several Andover substitutions throughout the game would not be able to erase that substantial deficit. NMH deservedly won the match and gives Andover (now 7-2) some specific tasks to drill for next week's tournament. The Blue will see Andover High on Tuesday for a scrimmage, and will enter Saturday's season finale tournament at the #2 seed against #3 seed Loomis. #1 Choate will battle #4 NMH. The winners of these two matches will face off for the honor of the 4-Founders Cup recently won by Choate in 2004 and by NMH in 2005.
Team stats for the day:
Peter Yao: 2 for 2 hitting; 21 assists; 9 for 9 on serves; 1 stuff, blocking 2 for 3.
Alex Schwartz: 7 kills, hitting 16 for 19; serving 9 for 10; 5 stuffs, blocking 10 of 14.
Howie Kalter: 14 kills, hitting 25 of 30; serving 5 of 7; blocking 2 for 2.
Ekow Essel: 4 kills, hitting 15 of 17; 3 stuffs, blocking 9 of 16.
Jon Lee: 1 kill, hitting 14 of 16; serving 9 of 11; blocking 1 for 1.
Wesley Mui: 0 for 1 on hits; 1 ace, serving 12 of 13.
Andrew Park: 2 for 3 on hits; 1 stuff, blocking 4 for 10.
Alex Svec: hitting 1 for 2; 4 assists; serving 1 for 1; blocking 1 for 1.
Jason Zhou: 1 for 1 on hits; serving 9 for 11.
Jeff Bakkensen: 1 for 1 on hits; 1 stuff, blocking 2 of 4.
The Andover boys JV1 lacrosse team beat Choate Saturday 7-4 in what was probably their best game of the year. The Blue successfully executed multiple offensive and defensive sets, cleared the ball well, and won the majority of the face-offs and ground balls. The team's scoring was balanced (6 different goal scorers), and the defense played well positionally, had a few takeaway checks, and got up and down the field better than they had all year. Goaltending was excellent for PA, as well. Overall, a very good win against a very good team.
The Phillips Academy golf team finished the season on a high note on
Saturday at the beautiful Portsmouth Country Club by successfully defending
the Witherspoon Trophy and winning back the Lovell Cup. Having extended an
insurmountable match play lead over Exeter in the first leg of the event,
Andover was guaranteed to win back the Lovell Cup. In stroke play
competition Big Blue was able to extend its lead over both GDA and Exeter,
thereby keeping the Witherspoon Trophy for another year. The final stroke
play tally was PA 806, GDA 851, Exeter 893. Number one Evan Harmeling
finished an outstanding season by posting 77. Lower Niche Koh fired a 75,
the lowest score of the field. Captain James Watson strung together seven
pars to finish his round and post 80. The team’s final record in match play
stands at 7-0-1.
With two convincing victories at the Consolation Tournament, PA Girls Water Polo sealed their season with a fifth-place overall ranking. The girls entered the tournament as the highest seeded team, scheduled to play the Exeter-B team and Deerfield. After an extremely strong first quarter, scoring ten goals (Alpan 3, Kelly Chang 4, Brenner 2, Bowers 1), Coach Efinger removed the starters, allowing some of the younger girls to get some playing experience. They contributed with a strong effort with a final score of 18-3. Freshman Greta Martin '09 played a great game scoring 4 goals, Mai Kristofferson '09 scored 2, and Madeleine O'Conner '08 and Yi-Wei Li '09 both scored one. Freshman Goalie Taryn Weins racked up 11 saves in the win.
In the second game against Deerfield, the girls performed equally well. In her final game, Co-Captain Parla Alpan scored seven goals, leading the team. Co-Captain Emily Brenner contributed 1 and led the team with outstanding defense. Kelly Chang '07 scored five goals, while Kimbo Chang '08 and Caitlin Feeney '08 each contributed one. Amy Fenstermacher '07 stopped 12 shots and allowed only four goals in the 15-4 blowout. Andover's notorious defense prevented Deerfield from scoring a single goal in the second half of the game. The game was a great end to a great season. Graduating seniors Alpan, Brenner and Amy Prosper will all be greatly missed next season.
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| Thursday, May 18 |
Glenn Stowell and George Flanagan pitched very well in a losing cause. Meg Shea and Lucian Neville both made excellent plays at third base.
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| Wednesday, May 17 |
Andover travelled to Thayer to take on the 9-1 Tigers, and despite a rough beginning the girls took home a hard fought 13-10 victory. Despite scoring first Andover quickly surrendered five goals in about six and a half minutes to fall behind 5-1. Fortunately, the team was able to re-group and settle down for the remainder of the first half. Andover then proceeded to score the next six goals to take a 7-5 lead at the break. The second half was more of the same end-to-end action with each team having scoring opportunities and defensive stops. The two teams exchanged goals for most of the half with the scoring edge going to Andover. It was a fast paced, physical game, and credit goes to the entire Andover team for responding and rebounding after the slow start - it was quite an accomplishment to go from four down to two up against such a relentless opponent. Andover is now 10-1 on the season, and the team will play at Lawrence Academy on Friday at 4:30.
The Big Blue traveled to Braintree, Mass., today to take on an undefeated Thayer Academy JV team. Inspired by the Andover varsity team's come-from-behind win, the JV girls followed suit with a comeback of their own. In the first half of the game, the teams had pretty even possession of the ball, but Andover just could not find the back of the net against Thayer's leftie starting goalie. Thayer was leading, 1-0 through most of the first half, then added a second goal with three minutes left. The Big Blue dug in and answered right back with an Alissa Fromkin '09 goal on a fast break. In the second half Fromkin added two more quick goals (with great assists from Nancy Ann Little '08 and Emily Little '09), to put Andover ahead, 3-2. But Thayer quickly tied it up with an 8-meter shot. Emily Little scored on a fast break to regain the lead, and co-captain Jamie Harisiades '08 added an insurance goal with 6:47 left on the clock. Thayer did not give up and scored with 2:38 left to make it Andover 5, Thayer 4. Goalkeeper Kaitlin Gaiss '09 made a clutch last-minute save to preserve the win. Fromkin earned the Offensive Player of the Game Award for her tough play and hat trick; Gaiss garnered the Defensive Player of the Game Award for her composure between the pipes, well-executed clears, and ten saves. The team would like to thank all the parents who made the trip down despite the Boston traffic!
The PA girls were the victors in Wednesday's varsity tennis match against Thayer Academy. Victories in singles by Lauren, Elena and Arianna with a sweep in doubles provided the 6-3 win. All sets were 8-game no ad pro-sets as the teams were playing indoors in Weymouth with time constraints.
Scoring detail:
1) Lauren Wilmarth v Molly Caffrey 8-4
2) Elena Jacobson v Ashley Lake 8-1
3) Lucretia Witte v Molly McDermott 4-8
4) Arianna VanSluytman v Lia DeCoste 8-5
5) Alyssa Hill v Michaela Martin 6-8
6) Archie Rajender v Keily Turgeon 6-8
Doubles
1) Lauren and Elena v #3 and #5 8-4
2) Lucretia and Alyssa v #4 and Jen Fish 8-4
3) Arianna and Archie v Brie Casciello and Hannah Rittershaus 8-2
The PA girls JV tennis team defeated the Pike School varsity team (a co-ed team) today at home at the Rockwell courts. The teams completed the 14th out of 15th set just as the rain set in, which was the game winner for PA because it was the Blue's 8th set won (Pike had already won 6 sets). Although the final set was still in progress at 5-all, it would not have effected the outcome of the match.
Playing on the road in Marion, Mass, the PA diamond men defeated the Tabor Seawolves 7-6 to improve their league record to 7-3 heading into Saturday's league championship tournament at Holy Cross. Will Sherrill took the mound for the Blue and pitched 5 strong innings, scattering 7 hits while striking out 4 and walking 3. Sherrill left with a 7-4 lead, and John Gardner came on to pitch the last two innings. After allowing 2 runs in the sixth, Gardner retired Tabor in the seventh to earn the save. Mike Palermo (RF) made a key play in the seventh turning what could have been a base hit to right field into a force at second. Gardner then struck out the next two batters to close the door. Chris Bramwell (CF) Matt Boylan (DH) and J.R. Santaniello (1B) each had 2 hits for the Blue, with Boylan blasting a pair of doubles and Santaniello keying a 4-run fifth inning rally with a 2-runs single to right. Tommy Arrigg (3B), Joe Smith (LF) and Palermo also had RBI's for PA. Catcher Tom Dignard called an excellent game behind the plate and threw out two runners attempting to steal. The team will face always-tough Cushing Academy in the first round of the Blackburn Tournament on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at Holy Cross.
PA JV1 Lax beat the Chelmsford JV 12-2 on Wednesday. The team showed very balanced offense, with seven different players scoring goals. The defense played well when called upon, particularly the man-down unit which killed 13 minutes worth of penalties.
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| Saturday, May 13 |
Despite the pouring rain, the PA Crews took to the Merrimack against Exeter and Tabor in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the program at Andover. While this year's rowers attended Saturday classes, many alumni crew members warmed up the river, and when afternoon came and the rain persisted, the Big Blue bested Exeter and Tabor in both the B1 and G1 races. PA also won the B3, B4, and G3 events. [RESULTS]
In a showdown between two unbeaten teams, Andover travelled to Windsor, CT to take on Loomis and from start to finish it was exactly the type of game you would have expected from two top teams. Andover jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, but Loomis answered with three of the next four goals to make the score 4-3 Andover with six minutes to go in the first half. Andover scored two goals within ten seconds in the final minute of the half to take a 6-3 advantage at the break. Loomis opened the second half strong as they scored three in a row to tie the game at six with 17 minutes to go in the game. The teams then exchanged goals with Andover going up 8-7, but Loomis answering; Andover going up 9-8 and Loomis answering to tie the game at 9 with three minutes to go in the game. Loomis took their one and only lead of the game 10-9 with 1:44 left. Andover had a final possession, and worked to get a good shot, but unfortunately the shot was just wide. Despite the outcome, the team's effort was outstanding and it was an intense end to end battle between two very good teams. Alyse Kennedy (5 goals) had a very strong two way game for Andover as she excelled on both ends of the field, Annie Boylan was solid in transition, and Kit Harris and Jen Downing performed well on defense. Goalie Julie Wadland had ten saves. The team is 9-1 on the season and the team will play at Thayer on Wednesday at 3:30.
The girls JV1 Lacrosse team suffered their first loss of the season in a very well played game, falling to an undefeated Loomis JV squad 7-6. Offensive Player of the Game for the Blue was Katie Michaelson '08 and Defensive Player of the Game was Lisa Lian '08
Choate came out on fire, exacting revenge for their 3-2 loss at the beginning of the season, dealing the Blue its first defeat of the prep season 3-0 (30-19, 32-30, 30-27). Andover managed to keep it even until 6-6 in the first game but then lost ground steadily. A combination of Choate's winners and Andover's mounting mistakes and miscues gave the game to Choate. In the second game Andover managed to stay within one or two points, and down 25-27 managed to take the lead at 30-29, but Choate rallied to take the next three points for the win. In the third game Andover tried a slightly changed rotation and even held the lead at 14-8 until Choate managed to tie it up at 23-23. The match was well-played and hard-fought, a mix of soft serves and spiraling top-spins, well-placed tips (by Choate) and blistering back row attacks. Occasionally the defenses would come up with amazing saves that would lead to beautiful rallies. Choate revenged their only loss this season, and is setting the stage for a rematch at the 4-team tournament (Andover, Choate, Loomis, NMH) at Loomis on May 27.
Andover (7-1) will host Lawrence JV on Tuesday 5/16 and will travel to NMH on Saturday 5/20.
Individual team stats for vs. Choate:
Peter Yao: hitting 3 for 3; 29 assists; 1 ace serving 14 for 16; blocking 1 of 2.
Alex Schwartz: 14 kills, hitting 29 of 35; 10 of 12 serves; 2 stuffs, blocking 10 of 14.
Howie Kalter: 11 kills, hitting 24 of 29; 2 assists; serving 12 of 14; 1 stuff blocking 3 of 3.
Ekow Essel: 5 kills, hitting 14 of 18; 4 stuffs, blocking 8 of 9.
Jonathan Lee: 2 kills, hitting 8 of 11; serving 3 of 4.
Wesley Mui: hitting 2 for 2; 1 assist; serving 6 of 8.
Jason Zhu: served 6 of 6
Jeff Bakkensen: hitting 2 of 4; 2 stuffs, blocking 7 of 7.
After a nearly three-hour trip through driving rain, the Andover boys were hosted at Choate's Hunt Tennis Center by the 7-2 Wild Boars of former Andover teaching fellow Ned Gallagher. First to finish in doubles were the third-doubles combo of Andrew Chan ('08) and Matt Schubert ('07), who have lost only one set this year, and they won 8-5 against hard-serving Chip Robie ('06) and smooth-volleying Peter Fromsen ('06). Captain Dan Wagman and Michael Li narrowly lost to the Choate first doubles team of Eliot Jia ('06) and Max Mullen ('08), 8-6, and then Trey Meyer and Foster Jebsen came through with a gutsy 8-6 win at two dubs against Choate's Ben Gettinger ('07) and Carr Lanphier ('06). With the doubles point in hand, Andover needed only three wins in singles and got four, from Meyer (6-0, 6-3 against Mullen), Jebsen (6-0, 5-7, and 6-2 over Fromsen), Schubert (3-6, 6-4, 7-5 over Robie) and Chan (6-2, 6-4 over Lanphier). With the 5-2 victory, Andover goes to 8-2 on the season.
Despite several very close matches, the Blue fell to Choate on a cloudy day in Connecticut. Toby Clark and Palmer Rampell earned singles points, and the team of Clark/Andrew West also won in doubles, but the doubles point went to Choate as they won both the other doubles matches.
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| Friday, May 12 |
In between the rain showers, the PA nine played a make-up game with Cushing on Friday afternoon at Phelps Park, and after leading throughout the early innings, overcame a 3-run game-tying rally by the visitors in the seventh and nailed down an important 6-5 victory in the 8th inning. J.R. Santaniello started on the hill for the Blue and the young lefty pitched very well, scattering 6 hits over 6 innings and leaving with a 5-2 lead after six complete. Tommy Arrigg came on to pitch the seventh and try to nail down the victory, but an infield error and a walk set the stage for Cushing's Aaron Santos' 3-run blast over the right field fence to knot the score at 5-5. Arrigg and the defense stiffened, however, and an inning later, Tom Dignard (C) scored his third run of the game, this one the game-winner on a wild pitch in the last of the eighth. Dignard was on base 5 times in 5 plate appearances, and Arrigg, Matt Boylan (1B), and Joe Smith (LF) each had 2 of Andover's 10 hits in the game. Boylan drove in a run with his first inning single and another when he blasted a triple to right in the fifth. Shortstop Mike Ciummei had one of the biggest hits of the afternoon with a bases-loaded, 2-run single up the middle in the sixth to give PA a 5-2 lead. Once again the outfield defense of Joe Smith, Chris Bramwell, and Mike Palermo was outstanding as both Smith and Palermo made long runs to turn Cushing hits into outs at key points in the game. With Saturday's doubleheader against Deerfield an almost certain washout, the team looks forward to next week with a Wednesday game at Tabor and then a trip to Holy Cross on Saturday for the league tournament.
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| Wednesday, May 10 |
Phillips Academy beat both BB&N and Thayer by identical scores of 5.5-1.5 in
a tri-match at Hillview Golf Course in North Reading, Massachusetts, on Wednesday.
(Thayer beat BB&N 4-3.) Despite cold and wet conditions, captain James
Watson hit nine greens in regulation and shot even par on his way to winning
both of his individual matches. Owen Remeika, Simon Keyes, Conor
Sutherland, and Kristen Macdonald also won two matches apiece, while lower
Niche Koh, playing at number two, halved both of his matches. Senior Tom
Tassinari’s impressive 14-match unbeaten streak (12-0-2 dating back to 2004)
finally came to end today.
The Blue swept Milton indoors with singles victories from Andrew West, Palmer Rampell, Jin Won Lee, and Lambros Theofanidis as well as doubles victories from the teams of Rampell/Bowen Qiu and Joe Wilkin/Dave Koppel.
|
| Tuesday, May 9 |
The boys varsity volleyball team defeated Central Catholic JV 3-0 (30-19, 30-7, 30-17) on Tuesday. With win, the Andover team's record improved to 7-0 and the team will travel to Choate this coming Saturday for a rematch of the closest match so far this season. Stats for the Central Catholic match:
# kills; #succesful hits/# attempts: Howie Kalter (11; 16/18), Ekow Essel (9; 11/15); Alex Schwartz (7; 13/17); James McGuinness (0; 3/4); Ahmet Taner (0; 3/4); Alex Svec (2; 4/4); Jason Zhou (2; 10/11); Jeff Bakkensen (2; 3/4)
Assists: Peter Yao (23); Alex Schwartz (6) Howie Kalter (1); Alex Svec (3)
#aces; successful serves/# attempts: Peter Yao (0; 8/8); Alex Schwartz (7; 15/16); Howie Kalter (3; 11/13); James McGuinness (0; 4/6); Wesley Mui (3; 16/18); Alex Svec (1; 7/8); Jason Zhou (2; 16/17)
Stuff blocks; # of successful blocks/# attempts: Alex Schwartz (2; 2/3); Ekow Essel (2; 7/7); Ahmet Taner (1; 2/2)
|
| Monday, May 8 |
The Blue won a close one that came down to the final match. PA recorded singles victories from Lambros Theofanidis, Joe Wilkin, David Koppel, and Bowen Qiu and a doubles victory by the team of Qiu/Jin Won Lee.
|
| Sunday, May 7 |
Andover Ultimate travelled to Western Mass on Sunday to compete in the Amherst Invitational Tournament. the team won four matches while losing two, and finished second in the B Division. Here are the individual game results:
13-9 win over Amherst Middle School
10-8 win over Newton North HS
15-7 win over St. Johnsbury Acad
8-15 loss to NMH
14-7 win over Scarsdale HS (Semifinals of B division)
7-15 loss to Needham HS (Finals of B dividion) |
| Saturday, May 6 |
Hosting Tabor for a late Saturday afternoon game, Andover bested the Seawolves by a score of 19-5. Andover jumped out to an early 3-0 lead only to see Tabor draw close and make the score 3-2, but then the girls in Blue went on a five-goal run. Andover added two more goals before the break to lead at the half 10-3. The draw controls were even throughout the game as Tabor was very strong in that area of the game. In the second half the girls in blue added nine more goals while Tabor added two. Andover played perhaps its best passing game of the season working the ball end to end exceptionally well and having 10 of their 19 goals assisted. Playing particularly well for Andover were Britney Van Valkenburg, Lindsey Weiner, and Stuart Anderson on defense while Alyse Kennedy, Sarah Beattie, and Whitney Annicelli led the attack. Also adding to the offense were Margaret Moore, Annie Boylan and Kayla Lawson. Andover improves to 9-0 on the season and the team will host Milton on Wednesday at 3:15.
Andover traveled to Loomis today for another win 3-0 (31-29, 30-15, 30-27)
Today's game puts Andover at 6-0 for the season. Most notable performances were by Alex Schwartz with 10 kills and 7 stuff blocks, Howie Kalter with 12 kills, Ekow Essel 4 kills and 8 stuff blocks. Jason Zhou was outstanding playing back row.
In the first game Loomis pulled ahead in the middle of the match, at one point leading by 24-16, but a serving streak by Wesley Mui would bring Andover closer 24-22. At the end of the game, with Loomis ahead 29-28, Jonathan Lee served out the game for PA 31-29. In the second game Loomis lost their footing entirely after having just been narrowly defeated in the first game; Andover wins it 30-15. The third game proved interesting again. Loomis took an early 5-0 lead. Andover's Jason Zhou served 8 straight to give Andover the lead to 18-14. Although Loomis would come back to within 20-21, Alex Svec served four straight to push Andover ahead 26-22.
It was a well fought match with crafty quick hits in the middle, from the outside, and back row attacks. The defense improved throughout the game on both sides, often returning blistering hits that should have scored kills. Overall, it was quite a well fought, tough match.
Andover will host Central Catholic JV on Tuesday on the home court, and will travel to Choate next Saturday for a rematch of the closest game this season. Andover won the first round 3-2, winning the 5th game 15-13.
Andover's team stats for today:
Peter Yao: 2 kills on 7 for 8 hits; 27 assists; 1 ace on 8 for 11 serves.
Alex Schwartz: 10 kills on 15 for 25 hits; 1 assist; 2 aces on 11 for 14 serves; 7 stuffs on 9 for 9 blocks.
Howie Kalter: 12 kills on 24 for 31 hits; 1 assist; 7 for 7 serves; 1 stuff on 2 for 2 blocks.
Ekow Essel: 4 kills on 14 for 15 hits; 8 stuffs on 14 for 15 blocks.
Jonathan Lee: 1 kill on 4 for 7 hits; 4 for 6 serves.
James McGuinness: 1 kill on 3 for 4 hits; 1 ace on 11 for 12 serves.
Wesley Mui: 1 ace on 14 for 15 serves
Alex Svec: 1 kill on 3 for 4 hits; 4 for 4 serves
Jason Zhou: 10 for 10 serves
Jeff Bakkensen: 1 kill on 4 for 5 hits; 3 for 5 blocks.
The PA baseball team traveled to Exeter to take on the first place Red in a Saturday doubleheader. Both teams played well in a pair of games that could have gone either way, but when the dust cleared Exeter remained undefeated, winning the first game 4-3 and the nightcap 5-3, each time scoring the deciding runs in their final at bat. In the opener, Andover jumped out to a first inning 3-0 lead triggered by a long Tom Dignard (C) double to right. Sam Conte (2B) and Matt Boylan (P) followed with singles to plate Dignard. Tommy Arrigg (3B) brought in the second run on an infield grounder, and J.R. Santaniello (1B) capped the rally with an RBI single to right. Boylan, Andover's senior lefty and co-captain, then took the mound to try to make that lead stand up, and he did just that until the seventh inning, striking out 7, walking only 2, and pitching out of several jams including a bases loaded, one-out situation in the sixth. Then with two outs and a man on first in the bottom of the seventh, PA leading 3-2, a hard ground ball that could have ended the game somehow hopped over the shortstop's head and into left field, and when the throw to third got away, Exeter scored the tying run. A clutch single by the next PEA hitter ripped the victory away from the Blue. The second game was once again a battle. This time it was Exeter who grabbed an early 3-0 lead when a throwing error and a bases-loaded walk got Andover in trouble in the second inning. But the Blue refused to cave, playing strong defense behind starter Tommy Arrigg, who allowed only four hits in the game to a potent Exeter attack. With single runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th, PA tied the score at 3-3. Sam Gould (SS) and Chris Bramwell (CF) got the first rally started with beautiful back-to-back bunt hits, one down each line. Co-captain Dignard (3B) had 3 hits for the Blue including a single down the third base line that he had to really motor to beat out, driving in the third PA run. In the sixth, Exeter loaded the bases with one out on a single and two walks. Again, illustrating the razor's edge on which these games were played, the Blue came within inches of executing an inning-ending double play, but when that didn't happen, an ensuing single plated two runs for the Red. Andover got two runners aboard in the seventh as Santaniello (1B) singled to right and Joe Smith (LF), who had already singled twice, drew a walk, but that was as far as they could go on this day. The team is looking ahead to three big games this week as they host Cushing on Wednesday at 3:00 and Deerfield comes to Phelps Park for a Saturday doubleheader at 1:00.
The girls JV tennis team beat the NMH girls JV team today at home. The score was Andover: 13 sets, NMH: 2 sets. Antonia Brooks and Adrienne Sabety played a particularly grueling 3rd doubles match and came out on top in a tie breaker.
Andover and Deerfield battled to a dramatic 4.5-4.5 tie at Crumpin-Fox Golf
Club in Bernardston, Massachusetts. Six players a side battled in six
individual matches and three better ball matches. News spread on the course
that Deerfield would likely sweep three points at positions 3 and 4, while
Andover would take all three points at the 5 and 6 spot. All eyes turned to
the first group. Andover number 1 Evan Harmeling had closed out his match
while his partner, captain James Watson, had fallen to his opponent. The
entire event likely hinged on their better ball match. On the 17th green,
with Deerfield looking at a tap-in birdie, Watson sank a 30-foot bomb to
halve the hole and send the match to the final hole all-square. Harmeling
hit his approach shot to 18 feet, but a Deerfield opponent was able to put
his 15 feet from the cup. As darkness enveloped the green, Harmeling sank
his 18-footer for birdie. The Deerfield number 1 answered, however,
dropping his birdie putt on top of Harmeling’s. As the final group of the
day headed to the 18th green, it turned out there was still some drama left.
The Deerfield number 5 had battled back, cutting senior Owen Remeika’s lead
to one with one to play. Remeika applied pressure on his opponent by
scoring a solid par, closed out the match and secured the draw.
It was, by all accounts, a great lacrosse game. Andover and perennial
New England powerhouse Loomis Chaffee squared off under sunny Saturday
skies in Phelps Stadium, and all in attendance were treated to a
thrilling contest. The lead changed hands seven times, and no team ever
had more than a two-goal cushion. In the end, a tough and determined
Loomis team clawed back from a two-goal deficit in the fourth quarter
and scored the game winner in a man-up situation with just 44 seconds
left. Andover never quit and after Matt Ward won the last face-off the
Big Blue had a great chance in tight on the Loomis goalie.
Unfortunately, on this day, the Loomis goalie was equal to the task and
came up with a big stop as time expired to preserve the 10-9 win for the
Pelicans.
The Andover boys played about as well as they could have played and put
together the best team effort of the season. Captains Matt Ward and Matt
Yeager once again played like warriors and led the boys in Blue
throughout. Short-handed and up against the best attack in New England,
the Andover defense played well with Mason Fried, Spencer Johnson, Yoni
Gruskin, Eamon Hegarty and Yeager all contributing huge efforts. Goalie
Sean Aaron played well between the pipes. Through the midfield,
defensive middies Justin Lee and Tony Christiano outworked their Loomis
counterparts, and the offensive group of Khaki Burke, Zack Johnson, Dylan
Green, Ben Weiner, John Badman and Ward gave the Loomis defense fits
creating good scoring chances all afternoon. The attack group of Pat
Curtin, Kevin Gould, Jon Bukawyn and Justin Kanter also played well and
but for a few missed shots, a heart-breaking pipe here and a great save
there, Andover might have pulled off the upset.
Frustrated but not disheartened the Andover team looks to build on the
solid efforts of the last three games and returns to action against a
much-improved Worcester Academy team on Wednesday.
The PA JV1 boys were leading 8-4 at the start of the 4th quarter but couldn't quite hold the lead, as Loomis came from behind to earn a 9-8 double overtime victory.
Although the squad lost 6-5 in overtime to Pinkerton on Saturday, the JV2 coaches were very pleased with the play of their young laxmen. The boys battled back from a 4-0 deficit at half-time and played their best lacrosse of the year. Special mention goes to Edwin Diaz, who had a fantastic game doing everything asked of him all over the field. Joey Atiba also had a great day at midfield, scoring two of the team's goals, and Dan Silva was a riding force at attack. Defensively Matt Gaske was really strong, and Ricky Chen continues to improve rapidly as a goalie, helping the Blue to stay in the game when they came out a bit flat early.
The ladies in Blue faced their toughest competition to date against North Reading High School. In a battle to the finish, Corrine Burke (C) lead the team in hits while Lauren Johnson (1B) and Hannah Weiss (2B) showed their impressive defensive skills. Maddy McGreal (P) kept the Big Blue competitive against the smaller yet faster NRHS team. Elizabeth Patino (CF) and Victoria Sanchez (LF) made some impressive catchers in the outfield. The team hopes to build upon their 4-0 record as they travel to Milton on Wednesday.
|
| Friday, May 5 |
The Blue swept every match with singles victories from Palmer Rampell, Jin Won Lee, Lambros Theofanidis, Joe Wilkin, David Koppel, and Bowen Qiu as well as doubles victories from the teams of Rampell/Theofanidis, Lee/Qiu, and Wilkin/Koppel.
The Girls JV2 Lacrosse team rallied from an early 0-4 deficit against Andover High School with a dominating performance to earn their first win. The girls ended with a score of 13-7, aided by Kate Farrell and Jess Frey's first goals of the season. Julie Ingram was all over the field, contributing both strong defensive and offensive play.
|
| Wednesday, May 3 |
Andover and Tabor battled through some rough spring weather and played a very competitive lacrosse game through the rain, wind and mud in Marion, MA. For the first time all season Andover jumped out early in a road game and played a strong first half. The first possession of the game proved to be one of Andover’s best as Matt Ward controlled the opening face off, and the Andover offense held the ball for close to three minutes before Zack Johnson found Kevin Gould on the doorstep for a nifty feed and an easy goal. That first possession set the tone for the Andover offense for much of the day as time and time again the Big Blue was able to work the ball around and take quality shots at the Tabor goalie. Andover closed out the half up 4-2 and appeared to catch a big break when Tabor was called for a 3 minute non-releasable stick violation to start the third quarter. To Tabor’s credit, the Seawolves’ man down unit played stingy defense and capitalized on some sloppy Andover offense and half-hearted defense to score a shorthanded goal. That goal seemed to change the momentum for some time and the teams traded goals before Tabor turned up the pressure and forced Andover out of its game and into a series of costly turnovers. As the third quarter ended, Tabor evened the score at 5-5 and looked as if they might pull away. Andover regrouped though and in the fourth quarter played excellent defense and smart, possession offense. Keys goals from Dylan Green and Zack Johnson put Andover up by two, and the defense of Matt Yeager, Mason Fried, Spencer Johnson, Nick Anschuetz and Jake Edwards controlled the dangerous Tabor attack down the stretch. Sean Aaron turned in a brilliant performance between the pipes making 21 saves on the day, many of them in tight and at critical times. Overall, it was a good win for Andover and a total team effort. Matt Ward and Matt Yeager both turned in top-shelf performances and stepped up as true leaders when the going got tough. Jake Edwards continued to play suffocating defense and midfielders Khaki Burke (1g), Dylan Green (1g), Zack Johnson (2g, 3a), Ben Weiner and Ward all played tough, Andover lacrosse. On the attack Justin Kanter gave Andover some valuable minutes and Kevin Gould (2g, 2a), Pat Curtin and John Bukawyn (1g) played perhaps their best game as a group. Andover plays powerhouse Loomis Chaffee on Saturday inside Phelps Stadium. Last year the Pelicans handed the boys from Andover their worst defeat of the season.
After suffering a close loss earlier in the season, Andover water polo faced off with Suffield again last Wednesday. The girls came out determined to show what they were made of. Throughout the entire game, Andover's stellar defense held Suffield to only five goals. Along with the superb defense, the girls also stepped up their game offensively with Kelly Chang '07 leading the scoring with three goals. Co-captains Parla Alpan '06 and Emily Brenner '06 both contributed with two goals as did Kimbo Chang '08. Andover finished with a satisfying 9-5 victory. The girls play Deerfield and Choate, the number one team in the league, this weekend.
|
| Monday, May 1 |
Playing a rare Monday afternoon ball game, the PA nine hosted the Tilton Rams in a game between two teams who have not met in several years. It was a welcome match-up as both teams arrived at Phelps Park with strong season records (PA 8-2-1 and Tilton 9-2). Coach Ken Hollingsworth has a very fine team this spring, and the Blue had to hang on by their fingernails to earn a thrilling 8-7 victory. Tilton jumped on top 1-0 in the first, plating an unearned run off starter J.R. Santaniello who pitched 5 strong innings to give his club an opportunity to win. PA tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the first when Sam Conte (2B) belted a long home run toward the tennis courts in left-center. Tilton added another run in the third inning, but Andover answered with 3 in the fourth and 2 more in the fifth to lead 6-2. Sam Gould (SS) knocked a bases-loaded single up the middle in the fourth to drive in 2 runs, and Tom Dignard's (3B) long sacrifice fly to right brought in Gould with the third PA run of the inning. Then in the fifth, it was Matt Skinner (C) belting a 2-out, 2-run double. But PA could not make the lead hold up, as a walk, an infield error, and a triple brought Tilton to within 2 at 6-4 and brought Santaniello's day to an end with no outs in the sixth. Peter Casey came on in relief, but before the inning was over, Tilton had surged ahead 7-6. Not willing to go quietly, Andover loaded the bases in the home half of the sixth, and with two outs Joe Smith (LF) ripped a double to left driving in 2 more PA runs to regain the lead at 8-7. The fireworks weren't quite over, however, as a Tilton lead-off double in the seventh knocked out Casey, and PA turned the ball over to Mike Ciummei. A hit batter and a walk loaded the bases with no outs and forced PA to bring the infield in tight. Fortunately for the home team, the next batter's smash line drive was near enough for Conte to spear it at 2B and turn it into an easy double play. Ciummei then induced a routine fly ball (one of the few things routine about this ball game) to right field to end the seesaw battle. Smith had 3 hits and Dignard 2 to lead an 11-hit assault for the Blue. While Casey got the win in relief, it was a fine outing for Santaniello who surrendered just 4 hits and 2 earned runs over the first five innings. Next up for the Blue is a Saturday doubleheader with first place Exeter on the Red's home diamond. Game time is 3:15, the late start attributable to SAT's being taken that morning. |
| Saturday, April 29 |
Traveling to Watertown, CT to take on Taft, a team that has dealt the Big Blue tough losses the past two years, Andover was able to pull out an 11-9 win. Taft scored first as they controlled the opening draw, but the Big Blue answered with five goals to take a 5-1 lead as the Andover offense played with great precision and poise. Taft scored two quick goals with under two minutes to play in the half, but Andover had the last goal before the break as they scored on a pretty passing play to take a 7-4 lead into halftime. Unfortunately, draw controls this afternoon were dominated by Taft, and the Rhinos converted their controls into goals on their way to tying the game at 8-8 with nineteen minutes to play. Just as the offense was stellar in the first half, the defense rose to the challenge and played superbly for the remainder of the game only allowing one Taft goal in those final nineteen minutes. It was a great team effort from start to finish, and the entire team was instrumental in the victory. Andover improves to 8-0 on the season and will host GDA on Wednesday for a three o'clock start.
Playing singles first, to accommodate the oncoming varsity girls match against Exeter, Andover faced some stubborn resistance from Deerfield but won every singles match except number six, where substitute Andrew West retired at the opening of the third set with an ankle injury. Five Andover players needed to step up, because they were playing once again without Michael Li, the current number two, because his ailing knee acted up after his winning efforts the day before against Roxbury Latin. The first match to finish was number four, where Andrew Chan beat Matt Buckley, 6-3, 6-2. Foster Jebsen in third singles had to overcome occasional distractions in his match with Geoff Laporte, but pounded Laporte's polymorphous backhand for a steady 6-3, 6-4 victory. After West's default, Andover needed two more singles wins and got them from Wagman at one, playing some of the best tennis of his Andover career against heavy-hitting John Rogers, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1. Serving with force and deception, Dan backed that up once again with some brilliant all-around play, mixing offense and defense, gets and drop shots. The match-clincher was Trey Meyer's fine win over Deerfield's streaky PG, erstwhile first singles player Anders Rathlev, 6-3, 6-3. Matt Schubert's three-set win against Andrew Cherna was icing on the cake. The irrelevant doubles matches were reduced to a six-game, no-ad format, and Wagman/Schubert and Chan/Palmer Rampell both failed in stirring comeback bids, 7-6. Andover's record is now 6-1, with wins over Belmont Hill, Groton, NMH, SPS, RL, and Deerfield.
After splitting the singles with victories from Jin Won Lee, Joe Wilkin, and Dave Koppel, the Blue pulled out a close victory with doubles wins by the teams of Lee/Lambros Theofanidis and Chris Kim/Bowen Qiu.
The boys varsity volleyball team improved their record in regular matches to 5-0 on the season with a 3-0 win over Northfield Mount Hermon Saturday in the Memorial Gym. The game scores were 30-17, 30-20, 30-20 for the Blue. Distinguishing features topday were that everyone got some playing minutes and that the quick sets in the middle scored most of our points today. While initially in the first game (Alex Svec and Howie Kalter hitting outside, Alex Schwartz and Ekow Essel hitting middle, Ahmet Taner playing opposite, Wesley Mui and James McGuiness playing back row) the two teams traded points to a 5-5 tie, the Blue began to move ahead with stronger play and really nailed the coffin shut when Schwartz served 6 straight putting PA in the lead 27-16. Some lengthy rallies and spectacular saves kept the momentum of the match moving at a high pace. In the second game Jonathan Lee returned to his usual outside hitting slot, switching with McGuinness halfway through, and Jason Zhou filled in in the back row, Andrew Park played at opposite) and Andover's team held NMH's scoring to a minimum. Only 5 times was NMH able to score an extra point in addition to the side-out point won. Strong combinations at the net, in particular having Peter Yao set Schwartz and Essel quick 1-sets in the middle gave Andover the flow it needed to secure the win. In the third game Jeff Bakkensen played opposite. Again strong net play by Kalter, Schartz and Essel allowed Andover to maintain its lead, but not until Schwartz served 6 straight did Andover pull away for good to 20-14. Andover will be on the road the next 4 Saturdays, and enjoy some home matches during the week versus public schools. Next Saturday the team will travel to Loomis.
Team stats for the day:
Peter Yao: 2 kills, 2 hits on 2 attempts; 17 assists; 1 ace on 13 for 13 serves; 1 stuff on 3 for 3 blocks.
Alex Schwartz: 11 kills on 19 of 27 hits; 2 assists; 6 aces on 22 of 24 serves; 4 stuffs on 10 for 10 blocks.
Howie Kalter: 13 of 16 hits; 2 assists; 1 ace on 8 fopr 10 serves; 1 stuff on 3 for 3 blocks.
Ekow Essel: 8 killss on 15 for 18 hits; 1 assist; 3 stuffs on 6 for 6 blocks.
Jonathan Lee: 1 kill on 2 for 3 hits; 1 ace on 7 for 10 serves
James McGuinness: 2 kills on 6 for 6 hits, 2 assists; 1 ace on for 6 serves.
Wesley Mui: 1 ace on 8 for 9 serves
Andrew Park: no stats
Ahmet Taner: 1 kill on 1 for 1 hit
Alex Svec: 3 of 4 hits and 1 for 1 serves
Jason Zhou: 1 kill on 3 for 3 hits; 5 for 7 serves
Jeff Bakkensen: 2 for 2 blocks.
Evan Harmeling tied for low round of the day by shooting 78 at the historic
Newport Country Club, while Nick Koh fired a 79. The day belonged to
Choate, however, as they posted six scores ranging from 78 to 86 for an
impressive total of 490, 25 shots clear of second place finisher Andover.
Loomis, Exeter, and Tabor claimed the next three spots. Although the sun was
shining and the skies were clear, a strong wind made this event a stern test
of classic seaside links golf. It was a special privilege this year to play
the course as the club prepares to host the U.S. Women’s Open in June.
Traveling to western Massachusetts on a Saturday is always a challenge for PA teams; trying to win two games against a Northfield Mount Hermon baseball squad is a bigger challenge. In the first game PA's Matt Boylan faced off with the Hoggers' Nick Daen, and both pitchers proved very stingy. PA hitters managed 5 hits in the game but could push across only 1 run, while NMH made their 3 hits count on the way to a 4-1 victory. Chris Bramwell (3B) had two hits for the Blue, and Mike Palermo (RF) drove in the only run with a 6th-inning single. In the nightcap, PA right-hander Tommy Arrigg held NMH in check while the Blue offense banged out 10 hits and took advantage of several NMH errors to win 16-0. Arrigg showed good command in allowing just 3 hits while striking out 7. Sam Conte (2B) and Boylan (DH) each had 2 hits and 3 RBI's for the Blue. Joe Smith (LF) also had 2 hits and an RBI, while Bramwell (CF) and Tom Dignard (3B) each scored 4 runs in the game. The team now has a league record of 5-1 and, after a non-league game against Tilton on Monday, is headed for a doubleheader next Saturday against league-leading (6-0) Exeter.
Andover’s boys and girls track defeated NMH and Milton, an
accomplishment that bodes well for the two PA teams at the upcoming
Interschols. The boys team, winning by an astounding 37 points, set the
tone for the meet with a perfectly executed 4x100 relay. The team of Greg Hsu
’06, Lou Tejada ’08, Mike Donelan ’08, and Jason Soule ’06 combined clean
hand-offs with fast times to cruise to a first place finish. In the next
event, Ben Bramhall ’07 broke from his competition on the last lap for
another five points in the 1500. Merzudin Ibric ’06, recently back from
injury, placed first in the 400 with a blazing time. In the pole vault,
Mario Noyola ’06 cleared a season’s best for first place, followed by Parag
Khandelwal ’06 in second. Running in a very fast heat, Tejada grabbed
another five points. Returning in the 200, Donelan and Tejada blew away
their competitors with inspiring sprints, both breaking the Lower 200 record
and placing first and second respectively. The girls’ meet, while closer,
also found Andover emerging on top. Andover’s throwers gave the team a big
boost early in the meet. Aba Temeng ’06 and Hailee Minor ’08 placed first
and second in both the discus and the shot. Following suit in the javelin,
Jen Meacham ’06 and Akosua Oforiwaa-Ayim ’07 brought home another eight
points. Colleen Thurman ’07 also had an impressive double-performance with
wins in both the triple jump and the long jump. Distance runner Ali Holliday
’06 ran a thrilling 1500, out-kicking her opponent on the last straightaway
to win the event. Next Saturday, PA track is away at a meet with Loomis and
NMH.
Girls Varsity Tennis came up just short in a 7-8 loss to Exeter on Saturday. There was lots of great tennis and good competition.
Singles results:
1) Lauren Wilmarth vs Ali Comolli 3-6, 7-6 (7-1)
2) Elena Jacobson vs Casey Simchik 6-4, 6-2
3) Lucretia Witte vs Monica Hernandez 4-6, 6-2
4) Arianna VanSluytman vs Jennifer Crouch 6-3, 6-2
5) Alyssa Hill vs Elizabeth Denis 1-6, 0-6
6) Yurie Sekigami vs Kavitha Mannava 2-6, 2-6
Doubles results:
1) Lauren and Arianna vs Exeter's #3 and #5 8-5
2) Elena and Archie vs Exeter's #1 and #2 2-8
3) Lucretia and Alyssa vs Exeter's #4 and #6 3-8
Highlights: Lauren pulled herself together for the 2nd time in 2 days to come back and win the 2nd set. Elena has such a solid game. Lucretia's second set was a thing of beauty - she was in the zone. Ari played so smartly and steadily. Alyssa and Yurie had tough matches as they were both matched up against the very consistent play of their Exeter opponents.
Pitchers Sarah Boylan ’09 and Veda Eswarappa ’08 split the chores in the circle against visiting Cushing Academy, limiting the Penguins to two singles while Andover won handily 28-0 in five innings of play. SS Lindsay Maroney ’07 collected four hits, while 1B Claire Fox ’06 and LF Lauren Shevlin ’08 had three apiece. Maroney, 2B Jamie Love ’06, 3B Melissa Tetreau ’06 and Fox each registered RBI. OF Kelci Thomasco '08 chipped in three hits. Boylan (2-0) picked up the win.
SS Lindsay Maroney ’07 completed a day to remember by going 4-for-4 in both games, reaching base ten times in ten trips to the plate on eight hits and two walks. Against the Seawolves, her three RBI led the way in a well-played game that felt closer than the final score of 8-2 in favor of Andover might indicate, though she was helped mightily by C Stephanie Clegg ‘08’s two RBI and P Claire Fox ‘06’s four-hit, eight-strikeout performance, good enough to run her pitching record to 5-1 on the season. Fox gave way after five innings to Veda Eswarappa ’08, making her second relief appearance of the afternoon, a tidy stint in which single digits dominated her pitching line. In two innings, Eswarappa allowed one hit and a single run while striking out one and walking one. RF Sara Ho '08 turned a botched pickoff attempt into an impressive out when she backed up the play, then turned and fired to second to nip the startled baserunner. With these victories, PA has now won nine and lost two games this season.
Under sunny skies in western Massachusetts the Andover boys lacrosse squad battled perennial powerhouse Deerfield Academy in a well-played lacrosse game. Unfortunately, Andover came out a bit flat in the early going, and the potent Deerfield attack jumped on the Andover defense and ran out to a 7-1 first-half lead. The score however was more lopsided than the play on the field, and the Andover team went into halftime confident that together they could play better lacrosse and turn the tide. And they did just that as they played inspired lacrosse in the third quarter and netted three unanswered goals bringing the score to 7-4, before Deerfield was forced to take a time out to slow Andover’s momentum. In the fourth quarter, with the score holding at 8-5, the Andover offense possessed the ball smartly and had numerous chances in tight but managed to hit the pipe and the goalie but not the back of the net. Down three goals in the final four minutes the Andover defense was forced to extend on the Deerfield attack and attempted numerous times to double the ball and force a turnover. Unfortunately Deerfield handled the late pressure well and scored two quick goals in the final minutes to extend the lead and put the game out of reach.
The outcome was certainly not what the Andover team had hoped for and while the slow start was, once again, a cause for some concern, the second half showcased the skill, strength and character of the Big Blue. Down by six at halftime against a very good opponent, Andover could have folded but instead, lead by senior captains Matt Ward and Matt Yeager, the team responded to play some of its best lacrosse of the season. In the second half the offense played quality, possession lacrosse and moved the ball creatively and effectively. Pat Curtin (1 goal, 2 assists) turned in a strong all-around performance, as did fellow attackman Kevin Gould (1 goal, 1 assist). In the midfield, Matt Ward was the man of the match as he took every single face-off and controlled the play from restraining line to restraining line. Fellow seniors Dylan Green (2 goals) and Khaki Burke also played well as did a healthy Zack Johnson (1 goal) who returned to form to give the Deerfield defense fits. Despite a bit of a shaky start, the Andover defense played a tough, aggressive second half and limited one of the best offenses in New England to only three goals while forcing twice as many turnovers. Goalie Sean Aaron turned in another strong performance between the pipes.
Andover goes south on Wednesday for another road game against a very tough Tabor team.
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| Friday, April 28 |
Andover Ultimate faced the Concord Academy Chameleons on the road today and
came away with a 15-2 victory. Though they moved the disc well on offense,
both teams had trouble putting the disc into the end zone. Concord made
several turnovers on the end zone line, and Andover dropped a few inside the
end zone. Andover outplayed the Chameleons on defense, however, keeping
them to just one point in each half. A highlight of the game was a Callahan
goal scored by an Andover defender who streaked down the field on the pull
and caught a Concord first-throw in the end zone. Though the Blue won the
game, they had to concede defeat to the Chameleons when it came to the
post-game cheer.
The Boys Varsity traveled to Roxbury Latin School for a late-afternoon Friday match on April 28th, and celebrated the return of Michael Li from a knee injury by pulling out a well-contested 4-3 victory. RL, who had lost only once earlier this season when undermanned against BB&N, earned the preliminary doubles point by holding on against a thrilling comeback by the Andover number one doubles team of Capt. Dan Wagman and Li. As singles began on the picturesque and historic Roxbury campus, under the watchful eye of RL coach Ousmane Diop, PA '92, Andover would need at least four victories to emerge triumphant. First to finish was captain Wagman, who surprised many with his forceful serving, steady returns, increasingly deft volleys and beautifully athletic gets and improvisations in a match against RL senior Dan Gonzalez. Michael Li impressed with his even-handed trademark corner-to-corner play, making surprisingly few errors for someone just three days off the DL. On the lower courts it was a different story, with early dominance by Matt Schubert giving way to overhitting on some key deuce points, and Foster Jebsen at number four having an uncharacteristically hard time, stymied by the interestingly arrhythmic offerings of fellow tenth-grader Alex Jacobs. The match was teetering in the balance as Andrew Chan entered a second-set tiebreaker against senior Perry Le Barris, and Chan took charge right away and didn't let up, earning a crucial 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory. That set the stage for the deciding match, and in a long struggle it went to Andover's ninth-grade phenom, Trey Meyer, despite a recurring hip flexor problem, 6-3, 6-3. The team and Coach Greg Wilkin would like to thank RL, Coach Diop, Mrs. Gonzalez and the other RL moms and dads for their gracious hosting.
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