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Girls water polo: Conant bows out against Loyola

If there was ever an angry shot, Conant senior utility Amy Rodriguez took and made it.

The extra emotion was there because Rodriguez, along with fellow seniors Lauren Day, Aly Wooley and Nia Tsoulos, knew the end to their terrific four-year water polo careers was coming soon.

"We left it all out there and hopefully made coach (Justin Bickus) proud," said Rodriguez, who popped in 2 goals on the evening and will head to Iowa next fall to pursue theatre and play club polo. "It's been such an amazing ride since freshman year. Our goal was to get to this point. And we won conference and sectionals, so it was a successful season for us."

Rodriguez's goal came with 1:24 and was the final tally of the game as Loyola claimed an 11-5 state quarterfinal victory in Lincolnshire on Friday evening.

Loyola will face Fenwick in semifinal action at 12:45 p.m. Saturday. The winners meet in the 8 p.m. title game.

The Cougars started well against the Ramblers, trailing only 4-2 after the first period. Loyola (20-12) scored first, but a Tsoulos goal evened it at 1-1 with 5:22 left. Loyola jumped ahead 2-1 shortly after Rodriguez's half-pool shot tied it again 2-2 with four minutes left in the first.

"We started as planned," said Bickus, whose girls finished 29-5 overall and ranked No. 8 in the state going into this week. "It was a really physical game."

That's as close as Conant got. Loyola jumped ahead for good at 3-2 on a man-up situation a couple of minutes later, which started a string of 5 unanswered Rambler goals and a 7-2 lead with 4:25 left in the half.

Junior 2-meter standout Olivia Olszewski ended the run with a goal to cut the deficit to 7-3.

Loyola then scored again to take an 8-3 lead into halftime.

"At halftime, we came to terms with the idea that this might be it," added Rodriguez. "We definitely fought until the end and left everything in the pool."

Both teams traded goals in the third, with Olszewski popping in her second goal of the game, giving her 125 this season.

Lauren Voss, a senior, led Loyola with 6 goals.

Loyola scored twice more in the fourth before Rodriguez's last goal of the game.

"We (the seniors) are so proud to have played for Conant," Rodriguez said. "We did our best in taking the program to the next level."

Bickus is nothing but proud of his girls.

"The seniors really took charge this year," he said. "They help get our program intact. Definitely something to build on."

Day played her heart out in goal to the tune of 7 saves, giving her 297 for the season and a very respectable 4.64 goals allowed per game.

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