Just too little too late for scrappy Stevenson

The Loyola Academy girls water polo team opened up a 5-goal lead over Stevenson early in the fourth quarter of Thursday's IHSA state quarterfinal.

The Ramblers needed most of that cushion.

Stevenson scored the final 4 goals of the match, but still came up short. The Patriots' final goal came with one second left, so all Loyola Academy had to do was make one pass to run out the clock and preserve the 7-6 victory.

"We've been a second-half team this year, and we made an incredible comeback," Patriots sophomore Cheyenne Montijo said.

This is the fifth consecutive year Loyola Academy has qualified for the state tournament, but the first time the Ramblers (24-9-1) advanced past the quarterfinals. They will play Naperville Central in a semifinal at 10:15 a.m. Saturday.

"We talked all year about making it to Saturday," said Loyola Academy goalie Kathleen Servatius.

Loyola Academy defeated Stevenson in the regular season by scores of 5-3 and 5-2. The Ramblers continued their success against the Patriots (22-11) by opening up a 4-1 halftime lead.

Loyola Academy junior Maeve O'Connor scored 3 of her match-high 5 goals in the first half. O'Connor said the Ramblers' quick start was essential.

"I took a deep breath and (realized) this was going to work tonight," she said.

Ramblers coach Rich Schici liked the way his team executed the game plan.

"Stevenson is so good at drawing kickouts," he said. "We wanted to play more of a team zone and limit the outside shots."

When the fourth quarter started, the Patriots took to the water with a renewed sense of urgency.

"It took us too long to get into our rhythm," said Patriots senior Katie Moy. "We realized this was the last chance for a lot of us to play high school polo."

Moy and sophomore Karen Lowry scored twice for Stevenson. Senior Mary Novokhovsky and Montijo also tallied.

"I'm proud of this team," Moy said. "We lost a lot of seniors from last year and we made it back to state."