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Girls water polo: Naperville Central advances to the state semifinals

Naperville Central has been talking about playing on Saturday at girls state water polo for much of the season.

It's no longer just talk.

The Redhawks defeated Lincoln-Way North 13-9 on Friday at Stevenson High School in a state quarterfinal. They will play Mother McAuley at 11:30 a.m. Saturday with the third-place or championship game later in the day.

"It was awesome coming here again to state," Redhawks junior Emily Westlove said. "We made it here last year. It was an awesome experience last year and one of our goals this year was to make it to Saturday and we're going Saturday so we're really excited about that."

It's the first time since 2012 Naperville Central will play on Saturday at state. It finished second that year.

"We got together on April 4 in my classroom and talked about what goals they had for the end of the season and right at the top of that was we want to play on Saturday," Redhawks coach Jeff Plackett said. "Then every tournament we had, let's show up and play our best on Saturday."

Westlove was a big reason the Redhawks will return for another day. She scored 7 goals, giving her 74 for the season, second on the Redhawks.

"Westlove was phenomenal," Plackett said. "But the one thing that won't show up ... was (junior Emily) Rodgers made a steal in front of the net with about 3½ minutes left in the game that was massive."

Redhawks senior goalkeeper Faith Vandercar also impressed her coach with her composure under pressure. She made 10 saves.

The Redhawks led 6-3 at halftime, then went on a tear on the third quarter. Their lead peaked at 11-4 on a Kaela Codo goal with 2:03 left in the period. Getting rid of some jitters was the key, Westlove said.

"The third quarter especially we got those out of our head and started playing as a team," she said.

"It felt like every time they got a goal and a little bit of momentum swung their way, somebody answered," Plackett said.

Part of Westlove's big day was the Redhawks' decision to move leading scorer Codo away from the net. Codo still managed 2 goals, plus 3 assists. She has 107 goals and 45 assists this season.

"We thought that against this goalie that it would work well for us to move Codo to an outside spot," Plackett said.

The girls will be joined by the undefeated Naperville Central boys, who play St. Ignatius in a semifinal at 10:15 a.m. Saturday.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz

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