Girls water polo: Naperville Central advances past St. Charles North

Charlotte Albright knows Maria Gabrielli is a strong goalie for the Naperville Central girls volleyball team.

Just don't ask her to point out what exactly she does well.

"I definitely think she flies her hands up like they teach you in goalie training. I don't know I'm not a goalie," Albright said with a laugh.

She does know one thing about the Redhawks' sophomore goalie.

"I love playing with her," Albright said. "Maria is awesome."

Gabrielli stepped up for the Redhawks in Friday night's sectional semifinal against St. Charles North. The first-year varsity starter had 6 saves as Naperville Central won 10-2 and advanced to Saturday's sectional championship against Naperville North at Metea Valley.

"It was nice to be confident in the goal," Gabrielli said. "I felt like my team was always going to be there and support me."

Defensively, the Redhawks (26-6) backed up Gabrielli. Naperville Central had 22 steals in the game, with junior Jodie Nelson leading the team with 7.

The Redhawks were quick to back up Gabrielli. With 2 minutes, 1 second to play, a shot went past the sophomore and looked to be floating in, but sophomore Emma Guccione swam back and cleared it away before it went in.

"At the end, when Emma came back and saved it, that meant a lot," Gabrielli said. "It went by and Emma was there for me."

Nelson started the scoring for the Redhawks. After a foul Nelson took a quick shot from 6 meters that went into the right side of the goal.

St. Charles North (21-10-1) tied it with 3:57 left in the second period when Maddy Feddor found Olivia Traxler in the middle of the 2-meter zone for a goal.

Naperville Central needed just 18 seconds to retake the lead. Nelson collected the ball near the middle of the offensive zone, swam forward and ripped a shot to the left side of the net.

Just 50 seconds later, Nelson connected with Rylee Brower for a goal to make it 3-1 at halftime.

Down, St. Charles North still liked where it was at the break.

"We were all ecstatic and elated," St. Charles North coach George Mitchell said. "Our girls executed the defense to a 'T,' virtually perfect. They were scrambling to adjust."

But Naperville Central did adjust.

"It was a really simple offensive switch," Naperville Central coach Jeff Plackett said. "We tried to use all of our (shot clock) time, see what the other team is doing defensively and just adjust our offense."

The patience paid off.

Just 29 seconds into the second half, Nelson scored from 6 meters. Payton Dezur linked up with Brower to make it 5-1 with 5:05 left in the period. Dezur assisted Emily Wagner and Nelson connected with Albright to make it 7-1 by the end of the third period.

"We fixed the switch and who was going to get off of you and who was going to get on you," Albright said. "We were just trying to fix everything that needed to be fixed at the time and I think we did really well."

In the fourth period Dezur, Albright and Wagner scored for Naperville Central. Hannah Springer made it 10-2 with 2:49 to play with a shot from 6 meters that went into the top right corner past Gabrielli.

It took a near perfect shot to finally beat Gabrielli. And even then, the sophomore was still able to get a hand on it.

"It was pretty tough," Gabrielli said. "It was high in the corner. I got my hand on it, but it slipped through."