Bright future for Fremd's Lauraitis

After a senior season that ended too soon for her liking, Fremd girls water polo standout Erika Lauraitis still has much ahead of her in the sport.

Although the Vikings made their third straight trip to the state's Elite Eight, a 10-9 loss to eventual runner-up St. Ignatius in the quarterfinals abruptly put an end to an incredible career for Lauraitis.

She finished with 189 goals this season, tops in the state, and was voted Athlete of the Year by Illinois Water Polo. She earned first-team all-state recognition for the second straight season.

The previous year, she had 169 goals and led the Vikings to the first state trophy by any Mid-Suburban League water polo team with an eye-opening 6-goal performance as Fremd edged Loyola 10-9 in the third-place game.

For all those reasons, she was the clear choice to captain the Daily Herald's first girls water polo all-area team.

"I think the main thing is her overall awareness for what's going on in the game," said Fremd coach Brian Newby. "You combine that with her swimming ability, her ball skills and her competitive drive, and you've got one very speical player."

Lauraitis credits her background in swimming, volleyball and basketball with helping her grasp all the principles that come into play in water polo.

A whole lot of hard work and a pointed love for the game also helped.

"I love everything about the sport," she said. "Even at the end of the game, when I'm tired, I don't want the game to end ... Water polo isn't a one-dimensional sport. You've got speed, knowing how to handle yourself in the water, ball-handling skills, shooting - and you've got to put that all together, and as a team, to be successful."

And this season, that kind of thinking helped Fremd surprise people. Following Lauraitis' commitment to hard work, Fremd was able to overcome losing five starters from the '09 team and repeat as league champs with a team-record 30 victories. In addition to her ovewhelming scoring ability, Lauraitis also led the team in steals and assists.

"She's just a great teammate to all of us," said Megan Kennedy, a junior this year for the Vikings, after Fremd had won its third straight sectional title. "I absolutely love being out there with her. I think sometimes we rely on Erika too much, ask her to do too much for us, but she just always finds ways to make things happen."

Turns out she's still making things happen. A recent trip to Boca Raton, Fla., with the Olympic Junior Development Program went very well for Lauraitis, who was among four players from Illinois chosen for about 70 spots in the national selection process. After one more training session later this month in Huntington Beach, Calif., she hopes to among the roughly 35 players who make the squad's final cut.

Either way, she'll have four years ahead of her at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. The Gaels compete at the NCAA Division I level in water polo, and Lauraitis will train under onetime Illinois great Brian Kelly while she pursues a business major or something related to math.

Iona will be getting a freshman ready to contribute immediately.

"She's a tremendously talented player," said Newby, "but the real key is that she works so hard to allow that talent to come out."