Girls water polo: Libertyville's learning a little bit each time out

You would think morale would be down after your opponent scored the first goal just 10 seconds into the game.

Not if you're the Libertyville girls water polo team. This is a young bunch, but resilient and learning every game.

Sure, Sandburg raced out to that quick lead and eventually came away with an 11-4 nonconference victory Friday evening in Libertyville.

But it was stretches like the last four minutes of the first half that turned out to be a pretty big deal for keeper Katie DeAcetis and the Cats.

Winners of four in a row coming into Friday, DeAcetis and the defense buckled down. She made 2 huge blocks that kept Sandburg, ranked No. 7 in the state, scoreless during that stretch and helped Libertyville stay within striking distance.

"We were only down 7-2, so finishing the half strong like that helped our confidence and attitude in the second half," said DeAcetis, who stopped 12 shots on the night.

"We knew they were an amazing team, and we expected a large gap. But we held our own and that is huge for our team moving forward."

Attacker Tara Maher scored the hat trick and utility Erin Falsey added two goals in the first half for the Eagles (16-4). Maher led all scorers with 4 goals.

Libertyville (6-9) has several outstanding shooters of its own on a team top-heavy with sophomores and juniors.

Attacker Margaux Scally, whose verbose nature certainly attracts plenty of attention inside and outside the water, is one of them.

"I love running the offense but it's hard to hear sometimes, so I have to be as loud as I can," said Scally, who scored the Cats' two first-half goals on beautiful lob shots over the outstretched arms of the Sandburg keeper.

"I usually like going for the corner lob shots, but their defense was pretty good. We had some trouble getting the ball inside on them. We didn't panic, though, and we stayed in there."

Libertyville's defense stayed the course, limiting the Eagles to just 4 second-half goals. And Scally did a great job defensively on Maher, holding her to 1 goal in the second half.

Meanwhile, two of the Cats' leading scorers, Anna Heard and Michaela Olsen, each found the back of the net in the fourth.

"Sometimes we struggle when we know it's a strong team," said Libertyville coach Tracy Balla, whose girls travel to Lake Forest next Tuesday.

"But I was happy with tonight. We handled the ball and held our own against a tough defense."