Andrea, Vernon Hills seniors impress
A couple of southpaws battled each other often in a girls water polo game Friday night at Vernon Hills.
But when Rolling Meadows sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Delporte summed up VH senior Dana Andrea’s performance, a left-handed compliment wasn’t uttered.
The keeper’s words were downright genuine.
“She’s so fast and a great shooter,” Delporte said after Vernon Hills’ 10-3 victory. “They have a lot of players like that.”
The Iona College-bound Andrea finished with 3 goals, 2 steals and 8 assists in three quarters as a field player for the Cougars (12-11). She relieved starting junior keeper Sabrina Counselbaum (6 saves) in the fourth quarter and collected 4 saves.
“(Andrea) is fast and crafty and she made sure to get her teammates involved,” said RM JV coach Tom Cooney, who filled in for ailing varsity coach Hal Fine (knee surgery). “I told our team, ‘No. 11 (Andrea) is their top dog; watch out for her.’ She was fantastic.”
Cougars senior Anna Lebiedzinski scored her third goal of the night in the first minute of the second quarter and finished with 4 goals. Counselbaum and seniors Kaitie Manning and Grace Lee tallied a goal apiece for VH. Senior Anne Fan contributed 6 steals.
“We’ve been getting back to fundamentals in some of our recent practices,” said Andrea. “We’re now passing 20 times better than we were at the beginning of the season.”
VH was up 4-0 when RM junior Angela D’Astice struck for a power-play goal at 6:13 of the second quarter. Mustangs senior hole defender Kylie Kamar (2 steals) tossed in a goal from near mid-pool in the third quarter, and sophomore Maggie Feikes capped the scoring for RM (1-21) with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter.
Kamar’s uncle, Vernon Hills aquatics director Jim Pardun, worked the clock at the scorer’s table Friday night.
Not much was left on the clock (12 seconds) when VH’s Lee netted her goal in the fourth quarter.
Delporte (13 saves), a part-time JV goalkeeper at RM a year ago, made several superb stops on Friday. She stymied more than a few point-blank chucks.
Vernon Hills’ primary goal in its final home game was to do everything possible to have each of its five seniors score at least one goal. Four did that.
“Our team is such an unselfish one,” said Cougars coach Shona Moeller. “But the thing about this group is how far it has come since our seniors were freshmen.”
Three years ago VH won three games.
The Cougars finished with more wins than losses for the first time in program history last spring.
“The girls on this team have done such a good job elevating our program,” Moeller added. “We want to continue to build the program; we want to have a quality team every year.”
Gael force: Vernon Hills’ Andrea can’t wait to play D-I polo at Iona in New York. She has already braced herself for some unusual music in between periods at Gaels games.
“They play bagpipes at sporting events there,” she said after Friday’s win.
Convincing: Vernon Hills’ JV team defeated RM 12-1 before Friday’s varsity game