Valkner's heroics lift South Elgin

Jourdan Valkner didn't blink at the moment of truth Saturday afternoon - either time.

The South Elgin goalkeeper saved four shots in her team's 2-0 victory over Sycamore in the first round of the Storm's Spring Fling girls soccer tournament at Streamwood's Millennium Field, but none bigger than two in the 51st minute as her team clung to a 1-0 lead.

In that sequence, the Spartans' Alyssa Maillefer got loose on a breakaway and was all alone in the middle of the field. She proceeded to fire a shot that the drawn-out Valkner saved in front of the net.

Unfortunately for her, Maillefer got tripped in the 18-yard box, setting up a penalty kick. Cool and collected, Valkner proceeded to block the shot by Alexis Divita back to her. Divita then fired a shot wide left of the net.

Disaster averted. And as it turned out, victory preserved.

"There's a ton of stress, especially when you're only up 1-0 and you have a whole half left," Valkner said of her game-saving sequence. "It's crazy."

What was her secret to stopping Maillefer?

"I just paid attention to the ball at her feet and the way that she moved it," she said. "You don't want to look up at her eyes, because once you do, it's game over. You take your concentration off the ball. So I just kept my eyes on the ball and as soon as she went to shoot, I knew where it was going by the way her foot was planted."

And what about Divita's penalty shot?

"PK's are very difficult," said Valkner, who will be playing at Winona State next year. "It's very hard to make that save as a keeper, but the girl was staring down at the ball, and as a keeper you want to stare exactly into their eyes to see where they're going, because normally they will look one way. She looked up at me, then looked to that corner, and I was just like, 'You're going there.' "

Valkner's heroics were magnified 6 minutes later when her junior teammate Corinne Hildebrandt corralled the ball in the right corner of the Sycamore end. She juked a defender, planted her left foot and fired a pass that sophomore midfielder Elle Struwing captured with her body and willed into the left corner of the net, which set the final score.

It gave the undefeated Storm more than enough breathing room en route to its second victory of the season.

But much later, South Elgin coach Tiffany Disher was still beaming about Valkner's efforts.

"Jourdan Valkner is very strong and I'm very happy with how she played," Disher said. "She was able to take down some big saves today, especially with the PK, and pulling the team together. We're lucky to have her senior leadership out there."

Another senior that put forth a strong effort Saturday was Delaney Kelleher, who scored the Storm's first goal, in the 36th minute. It took that much time for Kelleher and her teammates to solve a tough-as-nails Sycamore back line of Emma Stice, Mallory Wolf, Claire Schroeder and Janee Carlson.

But when it happened, it was quick. Senior Veronica Noyszewski blasted a free kick that was deflected back to her. Noyszewski promptly tapped the ball to Kelleher who fired a shot that bounced off Spartans' goalkeeper Drew Moulton and dribbled into the right side of the net.

"We needed that free kick, and when V took it, she went back and she just rebounded it and I just got my foot on it and it went in," Kelleher said. "After that, we kept sending cross balls through because we knew that's how we could break their defense."

South Elgin's defense, led by Noyszewski, sophomore Ari Walters and junior Sydney Shephard, held the Spartans to just 8 shots, 5 on goal, and no real threats to score besides Maillefer's breakaway, and of course, the penalty kick.

The Storm peppered Moulton with 16 shots, including 9 on goal. The team will face Hampshire on Tuesday in the tournament's second round.