Neuqua Valley gets back to basics
New Neuqua Valley girls water polo coach Len DePasquale should have a better idea of what kind of team he inherited after Tuesday's 10-3 win over Hinsdale Central, his former squad.
The Wildcats went 1-2 in a season-opening tournament at Naperville Central over the weekend but were playing without star senior Kathleen Patterson. Patterson, out due to a club swimming event, shined in her debut Tuesday, scoring 3 goals in her first action of the season.
"We're really just starting to work out the kinks," DePasquale said. "We've got Kathleen Patterson back. She's one of our starters, one of our captains, really a great leader out there. This week we're just trying to get back to the basics."
That work on fundamentals the past two days in practice paid off early on. The Wildcats scored 4 goals in the first quarter and 4 more in the second to open an 8-0 lead before Hinsdale Central (2-3) could even get on the board.
DePasquale felt that his team spent so much energy preparing for its tournament last weekend and lost sight of some of the simple things his team needs to do to repeat as a state-tournament qualifier.
"We felt like we were doing too many things to get prepared for the first tournament and we forgot about things like passing, shooting and stuff like that," DePasquale said. "Yesterday and today we worked on that, and I'm very pleased."
Patterson and Chelsea Reczek each scored 3 goals for the Wildcats in the win, while Nancy Leech added a pair of goals. Erin Hayden and Jenn Rinehart each scored a goal, as well.
And after her first game action of the season, Patterson is pleased with how the transition to DePasquale has gone in the early going.
"Coach De has done a great job of having us work together as a team and we're spending a lot of time learning how we work together rather than fastbreaks and things like that," Patterson said. "A lot more team-oriented than last year, I think. I think we're communicating really well and I think it worked pretty well today."
As for the Red Devils, senior Caitlin Connor finally broke the scoring drought with a goal late in the second period. She also added 4 steals in the loss. The team's final 2 goals were each scored by senior Brianne O'Doherty. Hinsdale Central scored 3 of the final 5 goals of the game.
"We definitely started playing with some more intensity," Hinsdale Central coach Chris Wilbur said. "I think we weren't ready for the speed that they bring. We always do better when we come out and play with intensity right away. We need to work on doing that more."