Girls water polo: Bollinger, Libertyville time it right against Mundelein

Even though she's been on varsity for three years now, Libertyville senior goalie Maddie Bollinger is still experiencing plenty of firsts.

Case in point was a crucial save in overtime that helped preserve the Cats' 6-4 victory against visiting Mundelein in North Suburban Lake girls water polo action on Thursday evening.

"I can't believe I blocked that. It was the first time I've ever blocked a shot like that," said Bollinger, speaking of the magnitude as well as the physicality involved with the block. "We're usually pretty strong on defense but we've implemented a new offense and tonight it helped produce some great goals."

In a hard-fought and tightly contested game throughout, that offense showed when senior hole set Sara Clark fed fellow senior hole set Hannah Mendralla, whose soft lob over Mundelein keeper Tara Lawson (7 saves) trickled into the net with 1:20 left in the first three minutes of overtime to give the Cats a 5-4 edge.

Then with 45 ticks remaining, Mundelein's Abbie Lukas rifled a shot from the middle of the pool at close range that any second earlier or later would have slipped past for a goal.

But timing was of the essence as Bollinger sprouted up as high as she could go and snared the ball with both hands out of mid-air.

"Maddie's one of our strongest players, and to hold them off like we did was huge for our confidence," said Libertyville first-year coach Tracy Balla, whose girls lost a double-overtime heartbreaker to Lake Forest a couple of days earlier but improved to 3-5 overall and 1-1 in the Lake after the victory.

Another first was that the victory marked the only time Libertyville has beaten Mundelein in girls water polo in Bollinger's four years.

"It feels great to finally beat them," she added. "And it was a conference win. Hopefully we can carry the momentum over."

Libertyville got on the board first when junior driver Jess Lanty started going nuts. Just 21 seconds into the game, she scored the first of her 4 goals.

Mundelein (5-9, 0-2) stormed right back though when Jessica Peterson scored back-to-back goals to give the Mustangs a 2-1 lead after the first period.

Lanty's second goal was the only score in the second frame and drew the Cats even 2-2 heading to halftime.

Mundelein then took a brief 3-2 lead after an Ella Krauss goal with 5:34 left in the third period.

But Lanty answered by scoring her third and fourth goals a minute apart to put Libertyville in front 4-3 with 55 seconds left.

Mundelein then knotted the game at 4-4 after a goal by Lukas with 15 seconds left in the third.

And goaltending was at a premium throughout the game, but most notably by both keepers in the fourth.

Lawson played the fourth period and the second three minutes of the overtime and stopped 7 shots for Mundelein. Gabby Potillo was in goal the first three periods and first three minutes of OT, stopping 10 Libertyville shots.

"We're very young and tonight was an excellent experience playing in a tight game," said Mustangs second-year coach Alice Denny, a former Mundelein standout whose team will have a chance to rebound when it hosts Lake Forest next Tuesday. "I'm pretty happy with our defense and we have a new offense, so there will be a learning curve there."