Volleyball Recap: Andover Comes Up Short in High-Profile Match with Central Catholic

Andover faced Central Catholic in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Monday. The Golden Warriors fell just short of the Raiders by a score of 3-2. The Golden Warriors were given a dose of their own medicine in this game as the Raiders apparently hadn't forgotten their defeat the last time these teams played back in October of 2024.

Andover took a 2-1 lead headed into the fourth set, but sadly they lost the next two. The final score came out to 25-15, 18-25, 18-25, 25-21, 15-12.

Naomi Vajda paced Andover's offense, picking up 20 kills. Vajda got some help from Tina Zheng and her 51 assists. Zheng was also solid from the service line: she led the team with four aces.

Central Catholic found their leader in sophomore Dahiamerys Brito, who had 18 digs and three assists.

This is the second loss in a row for Andover and nudges their season record down to 6-2. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 7-0 Chelmsford (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 94.4% over those games). As for Central Catholic, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 8-1.

We've got plenty of inter-league action coming up soon. Andover is set to square off against their familiar foe Methuen at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Central Catholic will face off against rival Chelmsford at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday.