BARNSTABLE – After beating Natick on Tuesday night, Andover High volleyball coach Dan Young said that he wanted his team to take the long bus ride to Barnstable to see what it could do against arguably the best program in the state, year in and year out.
He got his wish, and despite being swept in three matches, he watched his Warriors’ team go toe-to-toe against No. 3 seed, losing 25-21, 25-23 and 28-26 in a Division 1 Round of 8 contest.
The loss ends the team’s season with a 19-4 record, a share of the Merrimack Valley Conference Division 1 league title, as well as two earlier state tournament wins.
Last year’s team finished 17-5 overall.
“We definitely had our moments (of shining against Barnstable). Most of the night was filled with terrific volleyball,” said Young. “In the first and second sets, both had little runs in them where we couldn’t quite dig ourselves out of. We cornered ourselves a little bit and then had to try to play perfect volleyball. When you’re down 22-11, you can’t put yourself in that kind of bind against a great team like that and expect to pull it out every time. And to the girls credit, they do expect to pull out the win each time. We just have that no quit attitude and that’s been such a big reason for our success.”
Barnstable led 6-1 in the first set only to see Andover come back, but fall short in the end. In the second set, Andover trailed 22-11 and crawled back to lose by two. The third set went back-and-forth throughout, again with Andover losing by two.
“(The no quit attitude is a) testament to the girls’ will, their effort level and their mental toughness. There’s some fortitude that comes from the girls and comes from the leadership from that senior class. It starts with Adrie (Waldinger) and Erin (Workman),” said Young.
Sophomore Jessie Wang finished with 14 kills, 16 service points, including two aces. Workman had 8 digs, while Waldringer had 12 digs and 9 kills. Megan Durant was strong on defense and serving (12 points), Claudia Vieira had 4 blocks and 6 kills, Bridget Machold had 5 blocks and Sowol Lee finished with 29 assists as the team’s setter. Sophia Hutchins also provided big sparks with her play defensively and serving.
All but Wang and Durant are seniors, who played in their final games.
“I’m happy at our season looking back on it in retrospect for the past year. We lost a lot of senior leadership off last year’s team that also had success on the court,” said Young. “I’m just so proud of our senior class and what they meant to the program.”
Twitter: @JamiePote