Girls water polo: Metea Valley gets all the goals it needs to beat St. Charles North

Goals were a rarity Wednesday night at Metea Valley.

But the Mustangs' senior duo of Abby Smedley and Allie Ruden came through at the right time against St. Charles North.

Midway through the fourth quarter Smedley beat the North Stars' goalkeeper off an assist from Ruden to give Metea Valley a 3-2 girls water polo victory in Aurora.

"Usually, the (final) score is much higher," Smedley said. "Both teams were really competitive."

The Smedley match-winner was the Mustangs' lone goal after halftime; the North Stars' erased their 2-1 deficit when Beth Ann Ellingson scored from 12 feet away in the fourth minute of the third quarter.

"We are a defense-first team," St. Charles North coach Nick Engel said of the nonconference encounter. "We pride ourselves on that. At least with my team, (the final score is) not that rare."

Metea Valley was clearly the aggressor in the final seven minutes of play.

Ruden was particularly involved as the senior hit both a post and the crossbar before giving her classmate Smedley the winning assist.

St. Charles North goalkeeper Claire Rich did not make the Mustangs' task any easier with her handful of critical second-half saves off point-blank Metea Valley shots.

"I feel like we have been working really hard on setting up our (offensive attack)," Ruden said. "We beat a team that is ranked way higher than us."

The teams were evenly matched throughout the 28 minutes of action.

There were missed opportunities from both ends, but the teams were deadlocked after the first quarter when the Mustangs' Rachael Carlen trumped a North Stars score from senior Emmy Feddor.

Metea Valley grabbed a 1-goal lead to head into halftime when Alexa Cerra converted in the Mustangs' zone of attack early in the second quarter.

St. Charles North secured the equalizer behind Ellingson three-plus minutes into the second half and survived a Metea Valley counterattack 11 seconds later.

But Metea Valley broke the second tie of the match for good when Smedley had her keeper-deflected shot curl in the upper-right side of the net.

"I was nervous when I got the ball (from Ruden)," Smedley said. "Obviously, I knew we were tied 2-2. But once I got the ball, I was really excited. You could tell the tension. The low score shows that we were competitive."

Jocelyn Lent stopped five shots to earn the victory for Metea Valley.

"Our goalkeeper helped keep us in the game tonight," Metea Valley coach Wyatt Jansen said.

"We had opportunities that we weren't able to capitalize on," Engel said.