St. Charles North bounces back

Sometimes a loss can do wonders for a team.

Nearly 24 hours after suffering a 9-3 loss to top-ranked Naperville North, St. Charles North's girls water polo team bounced back in a big way against crosstown rival St. Charles East Thursday evening.

Katie DiFiglio and Monica Guyett scored 4 goals apiece as the North Stars (10-2) cruised to a 13-4 victory over the Saints (3-6) at St. Charles North.

After the match, however, the North Stars talked about the importance of facing one of the state's best teams in Naperville North as much as going up against their familiar foes from the other side of the Fox River.

"Sometimes you learn more from losing than you do winning," said North Stars coach Nick Engel. "I was proud of the girls last night. Naperville North was great - we've got to play games like that."

"It was a huge learning curve being able to play with that much talent," senior Katie Quinn said of the Huskies. "It was a huge learning opportunity and we did pretty well."

The North Stars did more than pretty well against the Saints.

DiFiglio and Guyett each tallied a pair of early goals while Quinn also got on the board as the North Stars grabbed a 5-2 first-period advantage.

Guyett notched her third goal of the game midway through the second period and helped set up Brittany Veto's goal with 14 seconds remaining in the period as the North Stars took a 7-2 halftime lead.

DiFiglio and Quinn continued the onslaught with 2 goals apiece while Veto and Guyett added second-half tallies for the North Stars.

"We've been working a lot on having a bunch of people be able to put the ball in the net - not just one scorer," said Quinn. "We did a good job of working the ball around."

"Offense is something that sometimes we struggle with but the girls stepped up and played well," said Engel.

The St. Charles North coach was equally impressed with his team's defense that held the Saints scoreless for more than 17 minutes, spanning the entire second and third periods.

"That's the goal - that's what we practice and preach," said Engel. "That's what the girls know we're going to work on because we can control that."

The Saints also received a superb defensive performance in a losing cause from senior goalie December Fagen, who stopped a number of point-blank shots throughout the game.

"She has been doing really great under pressure," Saints coach Stephanie Ter Bush said of Fagen. "I know she's interested in playing in college and I think she'll do great."

In addition to her 13 second-half saves, Fagen stopped a pair of penalty shots.

"I'm proud of what I did today," said Fagen. "I blocked some from 5 meters. I'm happy with how I performed - it just wasn't our day to win."

"She made some great saves," Engel said of the Saints' goalie.

Senior Lexy Kos scored all 4 goals for the Saints.

"She has a great shot from long distance and short distance," said Ter Bush, who admittedly would like to see a little more offense from her team.

"I think they need to talk a little bit more," said the coach.