Naperville Central headed back to state
The Naperville Central girls water polo team earned the chance to redeem a heartbreaking loss in the 2010 state semifinals when it gained a berth in the 2011 state tournament with a 13-6 win over Naperville North on Saturday.
The Redhawks (32-1) grabbed the early edge in the Neuqua Valley sectional final behind a stellar performance from goalie Julia Campbell. Campbell came up with a huge save in the game’s opening minutes to set up Abbey Kerth on the counterattack and give Naperville Central a 1-0 lead.
Kerth led all scorers with 7 goals.
“They passed a lot to me to create the offense,” Kerth said. “I feel the pressure, but when I have a bad game the team will always step in for me.”
Minutes later the Redhawks took a 2-goal lead when Emily Sejna found Claire Wirtz driving to the net. Wirtz ended the game with three crucial goals.
“One of our goals is to get off to a strong start and keep counterattacking,” Wirtz said.
Naperville North junior Audrey Chien helped keep the Huskies hope alive with an early goal, but Naperville Central countered with two more scores to take a 4-1 lead to the second quarter.
The second quarter was arguably the best seven minutes of water polo put together by Naperville North when it scored back-to-back goals from Jessie Lietz midway through the quarter.
“As a team we brought every ounce of strength we had this year,” Chien said.
Naperville Central took a timeout after the second Lietz goal to settle things down. Out of the timeout the Redhawks immediately set up a Kerth goal and proceeded to take a 6-3 lead to halftime.
“There was a point where things started to get a little sloppy,” said Naperville Central coach Jeff Plackett. “We’ve scouted North pretty good throughout the last few days, though. Coming out of the timeout we had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do.”
The Redhawks came out with a renewed intensity in the second half as Kerth scored two quick goals to help hinder the chances of a Naperville North comeback.
“Kerth getting the most goals for us is a product of how the game went. She’s been our MVP in this tournament,” Plackett said. “Every time I looked up on our counterattack she was leading the way.”
Naperville North goalie Emma Ryan kept the Huskies competitive throughout the game with her 7 saves.
Chein had an outstanding overall effort on both ends of the pool. Throughout the second half she created Redhawk turnovers, and added two more goals on offense. Chein led all Huskies with three goals.
The Redhawks open play in the state tournament against host Stevenson at 7 p.m. Thursday.