RallyNorth.net

Andover volleyball pounds Reading, cruises into state semis

LAWRENCE — Andover junior captain Ava Bakhtyari knew she and her teammates needed to step it up when trailing by four points to Reading early in the second game of the Division 1 North final match yesterday at Central Catholic High School.

That early deficit in the second game came after Reading got on a roll in the first game by rallying for eight straight points before finally losing the game to the Golden Warriors.

“As a team we knew we had to find the motivation from within and pull it together because we knew we could play better against Reading,” said Bakhtyari, who has been starting on varsity since her freshman year.  

Bakhtyari led her team back into the second game with some big kills and serves and from there, helped Andover to the Division 1 North title with a 25-19, 25-16, 25-17 victory over Reading.  It was Andover’s first Division 1 North volleyball title since 2007.

Bakhtyari had quite the night overall, leading her team with eight kills and 11 digs, blocking two shots and serving one ace.  

“Ever since my freshman year we haven’t made it this far,” Bakhtyari said. “It’s our year this year!”

Andover is 24-0. It has swept every single match so far, except one — a 3-1 victory over Central Catholic on Oct. 8.  

Andover advances to play South champion Barnstable in the Division 1 semifinals Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Westboro High.

“It’s awesome (winning the title),” said senior Elise Brogan. “We worked so hard and we really deserved this.”

Bakhtyari, who was all over the court, saving balls, hustling for digs and cheering on her teammates, played the whole game.

“She’s a key player on our team,” Brogan said. “She’s great on defense and she’s awesome at hitting. We can’t take her off the court.”

Bakhtyari actually began playing in the fifth grade when her best friend and current teammate Molly Burke persuaded her to come to a practice.

“The first time I played volleyball I just fell in love with it,” she said. “I had been doing a lot of other sports like soccer and swimming and basketball but once I played volleyball, I knew that was all I wanted to do. Molly had always been talking about volleyball in fourth grade and then in fifth grade I finally (listened to her) and did it.”

Burke added, “I got her into it in the fifth grade and we’ve been playing together ever since and we both support each other so much. It’s awesome. She played awesome today. She covered everything. Her defense was really great and then she got right back up into it and her offense was fantastic.”

Bakhtyari has a very good jump serve, which could really help out this Andover team as it advances farther into the playoffs.

“It’s not so much the jump serve but it’s how you hit the ball because the way that you hit the ball, it causes the ball to drift,” she said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to work on: to make it drift and float as much as possible.”

Andover coach George Sullivan said about her serve, “It helps a lot because it drops and goes all over the place. She worked on that last winter and really developed it. I really try to get the kids to push themselves and they’ve done a nice job.”