Girls’ Volleyball Heads to E/a with 15-1 Record

It has officially begun. The annual Exeter/Andover week. The week where dress code barely applies and red is worn plenty. The week where if you wear blue, people look at you like you are an alien. It is the week where suddenly everyone cares about sports, even if they can not tell you the difference between a quarterback and a goalie or what a field hockey ball is called. (Hint: it is not a field hockey puck.) This is the week where we get to prove our athletic superiority over our rivals from Massachusetts. On Saturday, we shall travel down to Andover in a red wave and overtake their fields and gym. We shall stay there until the day’s end, waving our red flags and chanting our cheers. And when the final whistle blows on the football field, we shall rejoice after another successful day of Exeter victories over Andover.

"We shall stay there until the day’s end, waving our red flags and chanting our cheers. And when the final whistle blows on the football field, we shall rejoice after another successful day of Exeter victories over Andover."

Unlike many teams, the volleyball team has already proven their superiority over Andover. They accomplished that with a win at home against the Big Blue in the middle of October. Exeter won that meeting 3-1 (25-14, 25-17, 19-25, 25-22). One key factor to that game was having a large, home crowd for the game.

“[The crowd] helped us have more confidence and get more pumped up,” lower Kat Dumoulin said. The crowd will not be as favorable to Exeter this time around.

But before we get into the actual E/A game, let us take a step back and look at the importance of this in the bigger picture. I am not talking about wanting to beating our rivals or wanting to put up a great performance for all of the fans. I am talking about the playoff picture. Teams do not get banners hung up in the gym for beating Andover; they get them for bringing home championship titles.

As of right now, Choate still sits on top of the Founder’s League standings with Big Red right behind them. Loomis and Andover round out the top four. Both Exeter and Choate have a single loss in league competition but Choate owns the tiebreaker since they beat Exeter. Loomis only has two league defeats and is at number three. Andover has three losses in league play. Now Choate holds onto the number one seed if they win, no matter what Exeter does. If Choate were to lose one of their final two games and Exeter wins on Saturday, then the Big Red have the number one seed. If they get first seed, they secure home court and will play Andover in the second round if both of those teams win their first round matches. If they get the two seed, they will play Loomis if, again, both of them win their first round matches. In other words, E/A volleyball this year is about more than just beating the Big Blue.

Now that is all set and clear, let us move on to Saturday’s matchup. Despite beating Andover and being on a twelve-game winning spree, there is reason to fear a loss. First and foremost, this is a road rivalry game. Anything can happen. Just ask any member of the boys’ basketball team from last year if they thought their game at Andover was harder than they expected. They will say it was, or else they’re lying. That game saw a future sixth seeded Andover take the champion Exeter team to overtime. So Andover’s volleyball team could pull off a similar feat and defeat the Big Red come Saturday.

Another concern that was brought up by senior captain Brooke Detwiler is overconfidence. “I’m worried [the team] might go into this game too cocky and underestimate Andover,” she said.

If the team were to go into this game thinking it will be an easy win, they are mistaken. ““[The team] has talked about it as one of the most exciting [and] important games of the year,” upper Katya Scocimara said.

Let us hope the game lives up to those expectations. The match is at 3:45 p.m. at the gym.