Libertyville quickly turning to Durning

The word on street is that the Libertyville girls water polo team was hit hard by graduation.

Now for the good news: The Wildcats brought back a key senior, Sara Durning.

Put it this way. Heading to the fourth quarter of the season-opening match against Deerfield, the scoreboard read: Durning 12, Deerfield 6.

Yes, the senior had personally doubled the score of the Warriors.

Libertyville raced to a quick 8-0 lead (Durning had 7 of those goals) and beat the Warriors, 19-13. The visitors had a boost from Katherine Rogers, who tallied 9 goals in the loss.

"My position is center,'' Durning said. "That enables me to get a lot of goals. I got a lot of good passes from my teammates."

It's too early in the season to make predictions, but how good a player is this Durning anyway?

"I'd say she's one of the top 25-30 players in the state,'' said Libertyville coach Chris Crawford. "She's very talented. She's just very strong. She's very willing to distribute the ball to her teammates. Plus, she's the comic relief of this team."

Stopping Durning from scoring every first-half goal was teammate Lily Marcus. She tallied the fifth straight goal for the Wildcats as the shutout remained intact in the first quarter.

On three more goals from Durning, the lead was 8-0 late in the second quarter. Deerfield had three straight goals from Rogers and the halftime lead was 8-4.

"This was our first game,'' Durning said. "We need to work on our defense and eliminate the fouls."

If the game was in some doubt to start the third quarter, Durning put the Cats at ease. She scored three more quick goals and then set about feeding her teammates. Sara Clark's goal made it 12-4.

And then it was time for sophomore Jessica Lanty to jump into the action. In a one-minute spurt, she scored 4 goals.

"She made huge strides,'' Crawford said of Lanty. "And she earned a spot on the varsity."

The Wildcats lead was 13 goals heading to the final quarter, and it sure seemed the outcome was decided. Well, no one told that to Deerfield's Rogers. She had 5 more goals in the final quarter as Deerfield scored the game's last 7 goals.

Durning was a swimmer early in life but water polo has evolved into her new No. 1 sport.

"My friend's mom recommended that I try water polo,'' Durning said. "Now I plan on playing in college."

Crawford admitted it's not usual to see a player score a dozen goals in a game.

"Not with the talent pool so much stronger now,'' Crawford said.