The Deerfield JV Volleyball team marched into Andover on Saturday ready to bounce back from a hard-fought loss to Exeter the week before. Playing at Andover is difficult as the home-court advantage is certainly on Andover’s side with what might be the smallest and hottest gym in the league. In the first set, the Doors let that home court advantage and a scrappy, defensive team get the best of them having to play from behind. A big save and a serving run by junior libero Karen Park and a serving run by senior captain Kingsley Carolan and junior Travis Gerst, propelled the team ahead of Andover right at the end of the match leading to an exciting 25-23 win.
The second set featured back-and-forth play to start with no team really taking a hold of the lead. Two blocks by sophomore middle blocker Katie Mountz, a spectacular save and kill by Blake Coleman, ‘27 helped the team to claw ahead of Andover at the midpoint of the match. Setter Selin Aksoy, ‘27 had 2 aces and a serving run of 3 points to take the team within 2 points of the win before Coleman finished it out.
The Deerfield team truly found their groove in the third set with excellent passing and strong work at the net by Gigi Selvig, ‘27 and Travis Gerst each with a block. Senior Captain Devon Coleman lit up the scoresheet with four kills in set three and led the team in the game with seven kills in the match. Andover had no answer for serving from Gerst and Mountz and the team took the third set in neat fashion with a final score of 25-16. The team will look to build on this momentum going into a three-game week against Stoneleigh-Burnham, Northfield Mount Hermon, and Taft next week.