Water polo: Stevenson’s boys, girls advance to supersectional

It was a winning day for Stevenson Saturday at the boys and girls sectionals at Buffalo Grove.

Both teams had convincing victories as they will advance to the state supersectionals Tuesday at Hoffman Estates.

Led by Hudson Swanson’s 7 goals, the Stevenson boys team used scored four consecutive goals in the second and third quarters to pull away from host Buffalo Grove 14-7. The Patriots (32-2) will meet Palatine, who beat Barrington 10-7 on Saturday, in Tuesday’s supersectional at 5:15 p.m.

“I think we did pretty good on offense,” said Swanson, who is a junior. “But I really think it was our defense that got us here. They had steals and made sure we could secure the ball. And that led into our offense.”

Stevenson came into Saturday’s game scoring 26 goals in each of its first two sectional games. Patriots coach Sean Wimer said his team, which lost in the state quarterfinals last year, is on a mission.

“We are hungry,” Wimer said. “We are very hungry. We want to win it.”

Stevenson fed that belly by scoring three quick goals to surge ahead early.

But Buffalo Grove (22-5) stayed in the game thanks to to the play of goalkeeper Vitali Bartosch, who made five saves in the first quarter. Buoyed by his performance, the Bison were able to cut the deficit to 4-2 on the second of four goals by Joe Buttitta.

Stevenson then regrouped and pulled away. The Patriots scored the next four goals on its way to a 9-2 run and a 13-4 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Armeet Gill added three goals for Stevenson while Levi Schnulle, Adesh Arvind, Onat Kose and Kenny Weisner each scored.

“There was a little bit of chaos early, but we handled it well,” Wimer said. “We just stayed the course. We showed a lot of poise and executed what they were supposed to do.”

Buffalo Grove, which reached the sectional finals with a 13-12 overtime win over Mundelein Friday, also got scoring from Tamazi Sanadiradze, who scored two goals, and Paarth Pitkar.

“I am really proud of how our team played all season,” Buffalo Grove Tom Cooney said. “This has been a build up the last four years trying to get to the sectional final. It’s just not our goal to get there, but to compete as well. And I think we did that today.”

Girls final: In search of their fourth consecutive state title, the Stevenson girls team got off to a slow start Saturday. But powered by an 8-goal performance from Olivia Spieth and a key string of saves by Elsa Kusevskis, the Patriots rallied from a 2-0 deficit to knock off Libertyville 13-6.

Stevenson (32-1), which beat Libertyville earlier this year, has now won 31 in a row. The Patriots will meet MSL champion Hersey in Tuesdays’s supersectional at 6:30 p.m. Hersey beat Fremd 10-7 on Saturday to advance.

“We were a little tight at the start,” Stevenson coach Jeff Wimer said. “They have been in that situation before and they just know to keep on attacking and play hard. And they did that.”

Libertyville (24-6) jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a goal by Ciara Simpson and a long shot by Annie Buchert. Meanwhile, Leah Simpson turned away three good scoring opportunities.

Spieth got Stevenson back on track with a goal with just 10 seconds left in the first quarter. That helped get the Patriots going as they built a 7-4 halftime lead.

“We knew we had a rough start,” said Spieth, who will take a gap year and play in Barcelona, Spain next year.

“But we just had to flip the switch on and it was game time.”

Libertyville cut the lead to 7-5 early in the third quarter on Ciara Simpson’s third goal.

Libertyville then had a trio of opportunities to not just cut the lead, but possibly tie the game. But Kusevskis turned away three shots, all from close range, to help the Patriots stay on top.

“I feel I do best in chaos situations,” Kusevskis said. “Especially when the ball is close to the cage.”

With their goalkeeper having their back, the Patriots offense and defense did their thing. Stevenson scored the next two goals on its way to closing out the final 10 minutes of the game on a 6-1 scoring run.

Caroline Bichkoff and Erika White each had two goals for Stevenson while Arohi Mathur also scored.

“Olivia (Spieth) really clicked it into gear,” Wimer said. “We really played a good defensive game in the second, third and fourth quarters and we attacked from that.”

Katherine Anderson and Isla Ellington each tallied for Libertyville.

“The first quarter was the best quarter we’ve ever played,” Libertyville coach Tracy Balla said. “It was amazing. We just talked about playing with our hearts and knowing we can compete with this team. We have played good games against them and our seniors wanted to have a good last run against Stevenson.”