Naperville North drops Fremd, Libertyville
A busy final week of the regular season ended Saturday for the Naperville North girls water polo team with two wins at its own Huskie Mini Tournament.
The Huskies (27-3) beat Fremd 13-2 and then downed Libertyville 15-4.
Naperville North, ranked No. 3 in the latest illpolo.com poll, began the week with a 16-6 victory Tuesday at Hinsdale South followed Wednesday with an 8-5 defeat at No. 1 Stevenson and then a 4-3 at No. 8 New Trier the following day.
"It was a great tuneup week playing great teams," said Huskies coach Andy McWhirter. "We're eager to get going. Sectionals, though, won't be a gimme. We'll have to work every game all the way through."
Naperville North, the No. 1 seed at the Neuqua Valley sectional, opens postseason play at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday against the winner of Monday's battle between eighth-seeded Metea Valley and ninth-seeded Lockport.
McWhirter said starting the postseason at nearby Neuqua Valley is an obvious benefit for his team.
"They're used to the pool and it will be a great way to get into the flow of the game. But you can't dismiss Metea or Lockport. They'll be ready," he said.
The winner moves to a Friday semifinal battle between either fourth-seeded Neuqua Valley and fifth-seeded St. Charles North.
On Saturday the Huskies jumped out to early leads in both tournament games and never looked back. Naperville North led 7-0 at halftime over Fremd, ranked No. 21 in the illpolo.com poll. Senior Jilian Eiken began a big day by leading the Huskies' offense with 8 goals, including 3 in the first quarter. Katie Horn scored twice as did Eley Matern and Lauren Liberio tallied 1 goal. Christina McBride started in net for Naperville North with Cami Bilardello also seeing tiime.
Against Libertyville Eiken scored 42 seconds into the game and the Wildcats briefly had some momentum after that. A Naperville North shot hit the crossbar and another was stopped. Then at 5:17 the Wildcats' Jessica Lanty scored to tie the game.
However, just over 30 seconds later, Taylor Stoner passed to Meredith Conway, who hit the back of the net. It was the first of 7 unanswered goals in the opening quarter, which gave the Huskies an 8-1 lead. Naperville North led 11-2 at halftime and 14-4 after three quarters.
Eiken led the way again with 7 goals. Caitlin Holzer and Hannah Wessel each had 2 goals. Stoner, Conway, Alli Horn and Allison Ray each had one. McBride and Bilardello shared the win in net again for Naperville North. McBride made 3 saves, Bilardello 6.
Naperville North called up several JV players to round out its sectional roster. McWhirter said the starters got most of the time against Fremd, but he substituted freely against Libertyville, although he stuck to his game plan so everyone is prepared for sectional play if they are called upon.
"Even as we substituted, we ran some of our plays," he said.