Wheeling reclaims East crown; Fremd tops in West
Wheeling’s girls water polo team clinched its third Mid-Suburban East championship in the last four years on Tuesday, but it didn’t come easily.
The Wildcats were coming off a tough loss suffered Monday at Fremd — not necessarily tough because of the outcome, a 14-11 loss to the defending MSL champs, but because of the injury sustained by Wheeling senior defensive hole set Kat Dobrowski.
A separated shoulder suffered against the Vikings will keep Dobrowski out about two weeks, which didn’t bode well for Wheeling as it tried to wrap up the division.
Buffalo Grove had a firm grip on second place in the division and a victory would have forced a tie for the East lead with two games left.
Instead, Wheeling was able to adapt to its personnel loss and pull out a 10-8 victory at BG.
The key for Wheeling was moving standout senior Leah Malsom into the defensive assignment Dobrowski usually handles so well.
Buffalo Grove senior offensive hole set Sara Fasching was able to play her usual effective game and scored several goals on her unique sweep shot, with Malsom defending.
But Wheeling’s overall team-first approach won out in the end.
“We were saying before the game, ‘We’ve got to win this for Kat,’” Malsom said. “It worked out pretty well.”
And it looks like Dobrowski will get another chance at the Vikings, who host Barrington on Thursday. One more Fremd victory against either of its final two opponents clinches the division. Considering the Vikings haven’t lost any MSL foe in more than four years, it’s logical to presume it will be Fremd and Wheeling meeting to decide the overall league champ.
“It’s great to have the excitement back that comes with winning the East,” said Wheeling coach Bob Savitt. “We got some tough news with Kat’s injury, but I like how we responded.”
Buffalo Grove coach Tim O’Hagan, in his second year leading the program, also likes the progress he’s seeing from his team. Buffalo Grove (15-5, 6-2) remains in second place in the division and came mighty close to upsetting the plan for Wheeling (12-4, 8-0).
“I’m really pretty happy with where our program is,” O’Hagan said. “We’ve eliminated a lot of the mistakes — most of the bad passes, that kind of thing. But what Wheeling is so good at is working as one unit. If you try to front them, they’ll slide to an open space. That’s the kind of detail that makes a difference in games like this one.”
Fremd 19, Hoffman Estates 5: The host Vikings have earned at least a tie for the MSL West title and could clinch a fifth straight outright divisional crown in Thursday’s game against visiting Barrington. Against Hoffman Estates, Emily McCarthy led the way with 3 goals, and Fremd (19-2, 8-0) got 2 apiece from Jena Teragawachi, Julie Conrath, KC Hutmacher, Sarah Stark and Tori Bolt.
Elk Grove 12, Rolling Meadows 4: Kayla Starbuck and Natalia Struk both scored 3 goals to lift the host Grenadiers (7-13, 3-6) to victory in the MSL East.
Conant 10, Palatine 3: The visiting Cougars (16-7, 4-4) got a 5-goal effort from Kristi Burke, and Jessica Southern and Andrea Cobb combined to score another five in MSL West play. Nicole Theis scored twice for the Pirates (8-13, 2-6).
Schaumburg 12, Barrington 11: Ashley Johnson and Kristy Bessler both scored four times as Schaumburg (9-11, 4-4) kept pace with Conant for third place in the MSL West. The Saxons led 5-0 after the first period and was able to weather being outscored 6-3 in the fourth period by the host Fillies (15-3, 6-2). Lisa Danhauer, Kelly Meckert and Catherine Byron had 3 goals apiece for Barrington.
Prospect 9, Hersey 3: Jessica Cavaiani (4 goals) helped power the visiting Knights in MSL East action.