Girls water polo: Stevenson sweeps quad in convincing fashion
Olivia Spieth and Stevenson powered past a solid field to capture the Stevenson quad Saturday in Lincolnshire.
Spieth scored 15 goals as the Patriots won all three of their matches with Hersey, Naperville Central and Barrington.
“I have a lot of teammates who assist me the ball,” said Spieth, who is a sophomore and had 7 goals against Hersey, 5 goals against Barrington and 3 vs. Naperville Central.
“That gives me a lot of opportunities. We like to create lots of movement on offense.”
Stevenson went on huge runs to break away in each match.
The Patriots led 5-3 in the opener before scorning five consecutive goals to win 14-8. They went on a 7-0 spurt to roar past Barrington 16-2. They then opened with six unanswered goals to knock of Naperville Central 14-3.
“We did an excellent job,” Stevenson coach Jeff Wilmer said. “We work on our ball movement all the time. We have a lot of very solid players. Anyone of the girls can score.”
Sophia Berger had 8 goals, Victoria Duncan 6, Dhanani Seneviratne 5 and Emily Headley 4 for the Patriots (17-1-1). Sophia Brown, Natalie Hooper, Mia Guseynova, Jillian Carlson and Caroline Bichkoff also each scored while Elsa Kusevskis was solid in goal for all three games.
In the best match of the day, Hersey (12-3-2) jumped out to a 7-1 lead over Naperville Central thanks to a trio of goals from Clare Corley and a pair of goals from Victoria Wrona.
The Redhawks defense then stiffened and goalie Eleni Nicoloudes came up with a number of huge saves to keep Naperville Central in the game. The Redhawks chipped away at the lead and closed to 7-6 on a penalty shot by Alaina Bartlett with 1:41 to play.
Hersey was then able to hold onto the ball and run the time down. The Huskies survived a long shot at the buzzer that missed the goal.
That win enabled Hersey to go 2-1 on the day. The Huskies were able to tally the first 11 goals of their final match with Barrington to beat their MSL rival 11-1.
Hersey coach Megan Brownley was pleased with her team’s play in the quad.
“Overall, I thought we played very, very well,” Brownley said. “We played against the best team in the state and they capitalized on our mistakes. But it was a good day. Going back-to-back games is tough and it is a long day. But the girls rose to the occasion.”
Victoria Wrona led the Huskies with 11 goals in the quad, scoring four against Stevenson and five against Barrington.
Corley had five goals, Melissa Loch and Emily Steinberg each finished with four goals, Andrea Teves had two goals and Avery Born one goal.
Naperville Central (7-7) opened play by scoring the first six goals of their match with Barrington. They went on to defeat the Fillies 9-4. But the Redhawks could not sustain that momentum, losing to Hersey and Stevenson in the final two matches.
“We are back here next weekend too,” Naperville Central coach Jeff Plackett said. “If you have an opportunity to play in a pool where the state finals are going to be, you have to take advantage of that. The last thing you want to do is to walk on this pool deck at the end of the season and have it feel a lot bigger.”
Kaylee Shiffer, Julia Weber and Bernadette Albright each had four goals to lead the Redhawks. Barrett had a pair of goals while Meghan Tueting, Sydney Famiglietti, Nadi Goreski, Macy Fulton, Bethany Towers and Nicoloudes all tallied one time.
Barrington (6-7) finished the day 0-3. The Fillies were led by Eva Korup, who had three goals. Olivia Schwan, Katherine Bouchard, Danielle Wrigley and Lexi Allmaras also scored for Barrington.
“This tournament lights a fire in our belly,” Barrington coach Kelly Meckert said. “To be the best, you have to play the best. That’s why we come to this tournament.”