Naperville Central continues to roll
Naperville Central coach Jeff Plackett will always appreciate an experienced team.
The 2017 version of the Redhawks girls water polo team is a prime example of experience as shown by Tuesday's 15-2 victory at Waubonsie Valley. The win moved Naperville Central to 6-0 overall. The team has picked up where it left off last season as one of the state's top squads.
"The amount of work the girls did in the off-season has shown early. We're doing things that might takes us until late April to do. But when you have players that are in their third varsity season, fourth varsity season it's a big help," Plackett said.
The Redhawks got to work immediately scoring 11 seconds into the match on Alli Hansen's first of three goals. Naperville Central led 6-0 after the first quarter and 12-0 at halftime. Emily Westlove paced the Redhawks' offense with 4 goals. Rylee Brower also had 3 goals, Jodie Nelson 2 and Anne Marie Gunn, Charlotte Albright and Emily Wagner each netted 1.
"We practice well and good things come from that," Westlove said. "It's a team effort. We do what we need to do. We focus when we need to focus."
Westlove has 25 goals so far this season. Brower hit the 20 mark on Tuesday.
"Mostly, it's about the team and working well together. We were determined to come into the season really strong and we want to make it back to the top," Brower said.
Sara Campbell was the winning goalie for Naperville Central and finished with 5 saves. Westlove was in net for the fourth quarter and made 4 saves.
Waubonsie (1-4) hit net twice in the third quarter. Alex Triko scored just under three minutes unassisted and then with just over one minute remaining took a pool-length pass from goalie Nicole Conway and hit net for her and her team's final score of the match.
Conway finished with 11 saves.
"She's a leader and we rely on her," said Warriors coach Kelsey Sopron.
Sopron said Waubonsie is a work in progress and feels strongly that they will be a better team at season's end. A key test of the Warriors' early progress comes Wednesday as they return to their home pool to host St. Charles North at 6 p.m. The two teams are close to each other in state rankings.
"We lost last year 7-6 and then lost in the sectionals to them 5-4. Our defense matches up well against them. We have a lot of people returning and St. Charles North lost some to graduation," Sopron said.