Girls water polo: Scouting Northwest
Barrington: Coach Mark Markwell’s team is off to a terrific 5-0 start with consistent scoring from sophomore Sam Gavars and junior Catherine Byron. Other key players include senior Kate Luedtke and juniors Lisa Danhauer, Grace Buenrostro, Kayla Widdowson and Kelly Meckert, along with standout goalie Brooke Fanslow. “The season is still very young, so I don’t want to have too high of expectations,” Markwell said. “I just hope to be competitive in all our games.”
Buffalo Grove: In coach Tim O’Hagan’s second year with the program, the Bison have high hopes. Sara Fasching, a senior, and her junior sister Callie are setting the tempo for BG, whose only loss through its first four games was to Barrington. Sara mostly plays center but also some driver. “She’s scored 9 goals in three games and is playing very aggressively both on offense and defense,” O’Hagan said. Callie Fasching is quickly distinguishing herself in goal and stopped all of the 5-meter shots taken against her so far this year.
Conant: The Cougars return a top scoring group with Andrea Cobb, Kristi Burke and Jessica Southern, each of whom had almost 50 goals last season. “They are a tough group to cover,” said Conant coach Justin Bickus, who is working with a new goalie, Jessica Davis. Conant won its first three games of the season and also won its home tournament last weekend, so things are looking up for the Cougars. “We’ll be excited to see where our work this season takes us and how we can compete with the likes of (Fremd), Schaumburg and Barrington.”
Elk Grove: Some are saying this might be the Grens’ best team ever. A pair of juniors are stepping forward — hole set Kathryn Noonan and driver Alexa Zajac. Noonan has developed an impressive step-out move and is able to finish shots with authority. Zajac is adept at commanding the defense’s attention on drives, then finding open teammates.
Fremd: Coach Ray Roth steps in for Brian Newby to lead the team (Newby is in charge of the Fremd boys now), and things looks very promising again for what has been the league’s premier girls program. Roth assisted Newby as JV coach the last three seasons so he is extremely familiar with the expectations from within the program. The defending MSL champs have five starters returning from last season’s Elite Eight qualifier: Julie Conrath (goalie) plus Lauren Zambelli, Samantha Matuszewski, Samantha DelPrado and Emily McCarthy. Each of them earned various levels of preseason acclaim from illpolo.com, which has Fremd No. 3 in the state in its most recent rankings. Amy McEllen and Carly Gessert have also been starting, and Roth considers himself fortunate to have a deep bench with players such as Taylor Spoonholtz, Erika Wickstrom, Breanna Anderson and Samantha DiCanio getting meaningful minutes. An overtime victory over perennial state qualifier Mother McCauley over the weekend has Fremd at 9-2 overall and seemingly on track for another extended postseason. The Vikings have made the state tournament each of the past four years, but in the last two seasons were eliminated with painful 1-goal losses in the quarterfinals. “The team expectations are pretty high,” said Roth. “We are looking to get past the first round of state this year. The last two years have been tough and this group of seniors really want to go out as big as possible.”
Hersey: Coach Megan Brownley had two starters returning — Allison Williams and Hannah Johnson — along with goalies Natalie Curtis and Cory Hall to start the season. Maddie Liesz is another varsity returner, but the rest of her varsity roster spent last year on the JV, so the early weeks have been devoted to “figuring out everyone’s strengths and how to use them to our advantage in games.” Brownley predicts a tight battle for supremacy in the MSL East owing to widespread participation in the District Unified Water Polo program (available to District 214 students) over the winter. “It will be some good, tough competition to win the East this year, so we’re looking forward to fighting for it.”
Hoffman Estates: Sharon Sturnfield has again been supplying plenty of offense, and the Hawks have been competitive against most of their competition. That hasn’t translated to the win column so far, as the Hawks are 1-9 overall and 0-2 in the MSL West. Other players in key roles include Kasra Serwin, Cory Liang, Stephanie Lynn and Faith Sheely.
Maine West: Coach Brett Unruh looks forward to continuing to build the program and has some experienced players with which to try. Seniors Amy Nakano, Jenn Barnes and junior Shannon O’Hagan are captains; junior Kara Atwood and Amy Maciejewski, along with soph Carly Romano, are the other starters. Two juniors will handle goalie duties; Tara Woodford (deep end) and Sara Godawa (shallow end). “Right now we are building a solid team,” Unruh said. “This year we might not be the best team in the conference, but we are learning and improving. By the end of this year we can really be a tough team.”
Prospect: The defending East champs suffered more than its fair share of graduation losses, including standout Meg Dix. But save your pity, because the Knights have every reason to believe they’ll be in the mix again this season. Jessica Cavaiani is a skilled and diverse offensive hole set — a strong shot, but very aware of her teammates and willing to kick the ball back out. Kallie Shields is varsity returner who coach Alfonso Lopez will rely on for leadership, scoring and defensive shutdowns; she earned all-sectional honorable mention last season. New goalie Amanda Drucker has been solid so far, and Emily Gabriel and Jenna Gartz will be starting, with Mary Schiavone seeing time at d-hole. Lopez is also counting on contributions from wings Katlyn Tomasetti, Emily Rigopoulos and Megan Tuttle.
Rolling Meadows: Hal Fine has stepped in to coach as Tiffany Kupkowski attends to the birth of her first son. The Mustangs have been getting production from Jessica Dykstra and Angela D’Astice on the way to a 1-3 start (0-2 MSL East).
Schaumburg: Coach Beth Donatucci lost three starters from last year’s standout team, which finished 17-8 overall and 8-2 in the MSL West. But the Saxons have plenty of capable players back in the water, notably this year’s captains, Casey Houts and Ashley Johnson. Other varsity returns include Kristy Bessler, Rachel Fish, Addie Reis, Haven Aldridge, Bridget Walsh, Jess Sumsky and Rebecca Brow. “We look to continue to build our program and continue to uphold what our program stands for,” Donatucci said. “These seniors were freshmen when I took over the program, so this year is indeed special for all of us as it makes us full circle.”
Wheeling: Coach Bob Savitt is counting on a big season from senior Leah Malsom, who has already delivered standout swimming and girls basketball seasons for the Wildcats. She’s a preseason third-team all-stater who used her 6-foot frame to help create space on drives, then shares the ball freely with teammates, and is also a shutdown defender. Junior Kat Dobrowski is impressing at d-hole, and off-season weight work has helped her development greatly. Savitt says senior Heather Murphy is making a difference at offensive hole and expect the Wildcats to be among the teams vying for an MSL East title. “There is so much parity across the board that anyone can win the East this year,” Savitt said. “It should be really fun to watch.”