Composed Patriots stop Wheeling, earn return to state
Patience, poise, persistence, and a lot a hard training ultimately carried the Stevenson girls water polo team to victory Saturday afternoon in the Palatine sectional finals.
The top-seeded Patriots only led No. 2 Wheeling (20-9) 4-3 late in the third quarter of this classic defensive struggle. But Stevenson (25-8) was able to kick it into high gear after that point to pull away for a 10-4 victory and earn a trip to the Elite Eight tournament next Friday in its own pool.
Like the rest of the Pats’ team, it took Stevenson senior Erin McCook a while to get rolling, but she was a huge difference-maker as she scored 5 of her 6 goals in the final 9:11 of the game to help put the pesky Wildcats away for good.
“Our coach (Jeff Wimer) told us to show them what we’re made of and who wants it more,” said McCook. “We’ve been swimming almost 4,000 yards a day to get our conditioning up and I think it really showed in the end.”
The Stevenson program has really shined under Wimer’s guidance with 11 straight sectional finals appearances and a state runner-up finish last spring.
Besides McCook’s offensive onslaught, Carthage College-bound Stevenson goalkeeper Lisa Michalowski came up huge for the Patriots with 15 saves in the contest to help keep Wheeling at bay.
“Our goalkeeper was spectacular, and this was one of her better performances,” said Wimer, whose team faces St. Ignatius Friday at 4:30 p.m. “Big-time players step up in big-time games and Erin (McCook) has scored 16 goals in the tournament so that’s pretty incredible.”
After battling to a 1-1 deadlock after one quarter, Stevenson got goals from Brittany Gartenberg, McCook, and Cami Haas to take a 4-2 lead into the intermission.
Wheeling’s Leah Malsom cut the gap to 4-3 on a penalty shot with 4:27 left in the third quarter. McCook scored with 2:11 left in the period before she took a long pass from Michalowski and scored again with 1:02 left in the period to really put the Wildcats behind the eight ball.
“They got two goals at the end of the third quarter to go up 6-3 and Stevenson is just a great team,” said Wheeling coach Bob Savitt. “But I’m so proud of our girls and I don’t think 10-4 was indicative of how well they played. It’s the first time we made it to the sectional finals.”
McCook swam down the right side and scored for a 7-3 lead 1:34 into the fourth quarter. A goal by Shannon Richards kept Wheeling’s hopes alive, cutting the lead to 7-4 with 4:45 to play.
But Stevenson’s Alex Kanaris’ goal boosted the lead to 8-4 with 3:52 to go before McCook added her fifth and sixth goals for an insurmountable 10-4 lead with 2:54 left.