Sweeping change benefits Neiweem, Libertyville against Mundelein
Ask Libertyville girls soccer coach Andy Bitta if he's going to be making any changes to his formation in the near future and you'll most likely get a convincing no.
That especially applies when making inference to his junior midfielder Julia Neiweem, who up until two games ago was playing sweeper.
"She's big and strong and wins a lot of balls in the midfield position," said Bitta after his girls improved to 9-3 overall and 2-2 in the North Suburban Lake following its 1-0 shutout over Mundelein on Libertyville's senior night.
In the 49th minute of an evenly contested match throughout, Neiweem found herself in the right place at the right time. Sophomore forward Emily Olson initiated things with a cross pass to the middle towards her running mate. Mundelein sophomore keeper Lexi Pawlowski had her hands on the ball for an apparent save. But the ball squirted away from her and Neiweem was there to clean things up as she used that split second to rifle one in from about 10 yards out.
"I'm kinda new to this position but I can definitely get used to it," said Neiweem, reflecting on her second score of the season. "I just saw the ball there and went in hard. It was really exciting. The midfield works for me because of my size."
If not the size, opponents need also be wary of the Cats' speed.
In addition to Emily Olson, her sister and sophomore forward Maddie Olson and junior forward Annie Thompson are among those supplying dizzing speed up to for Libertyville.
"We did a good job tonight playing the ball wide, so we were able to use our speed to get the corners," said Bitta. "We played well except for about 20 minutes in the first half. Mundelein did a good job with keeping possession."
Those possessions produced 10 shots on goal for the evening for the Mustangs. Senior forward Cristy Nambo created a lot of havoc in the middle with her speed and quickness. Nambo took the ball deep in Libertyville's territory and had a few good shots on goal but the shot either drifted wide or Cats keeper senior Lauren Janousek was their to get her hands on it.
Janousek had several nifty saves from point-blank range, whether they came off the foot of Nambo or from the likes of junior Emily Hay, sophomore Leah Goldman or freshman Molly Mishler, all who had good scoring chances. For the game, Janousek stopped 5 Mustang shots on goal.
In the 79th minute, Mundelein threatened to tie the game after a Nambo's beautiful corner kick to right in front of the box, but the ball was promptly cleared out by Maddie Olson.
"We did a nice job of creating and taking space and for the most part we played well," said Mundelein head coach Ernie Billittier, whose team slipped to 5-5-4 overall and 1-1-2 in the North Suburban Lake. "We had plenty of opportunities tonight but we're still missing that final goal-scoring touch."
Libertyville travels to Warren on Thursday for another NSC Lake contest. Meanwhile, Mundelein will compete in the Glenbrook South tournament this weekend.