Girls water polo: Hersey dominates Conant to win sectional title
The Hersey girls water polo team wanted to make its first run to the IHSA state tournament a memorable one when it faced No. 3 seed Conant for the sectional championship Saturday morning at Prospect.
And the top-seeded Huskies (17-1) did just that as they absolutely dominated the Cougars from start to finish with a lopsided 15-1 victory to advance to the Elite Eight quarterfinals for the first time in school history.
Fremd sectional champion Hersey will face St. Ignatius sectional champion Lane Tech Wednesday at Fenwick at 8:30 p.m. in the state quarterfinals.
As was the case in the sectional semifinals Friday against Palatine, Hersey senior Annie Lindgren was once again the biggest difference-maker for the Huskies Saturday as she scored a career-high 7 goals to lead the rout over Conant (12-12).
Hersey's Ila Nathanson opened the scoring 1:37 into the contest before Lindgren swam a long distance and threw a shot past Conant goalkeeper Sam Henry into the left corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.
Lindgren scored again from close range before recording a hat trick on a fastbreak goal with just 2.68 seconds left in the first quarter for a commanding 4-0 advantage.
"I didn't know what to expect, but our team played amazing today," said Lindgren, whose team led 13-1 after three quarters. "Against teams we haven't played before we don't know what to expect, but we're definitely going to be prepared for next week."
Conant's Katie Kuffel broke up the shutout with a shot past Hersey goalkeeper Alexa Knutson 1:24 into the second quarter. But a long-range goal by Hersey's Tea Lang followed by a goal by teammate Abby Pedota boosted the lead to 6-1 at halftime.
"This is one goal to get there (to state), and if we play like this I think they have a good chance of getting to the finals next Saturday," said Hersey coach Megan Brownley, whose team outscored Conant 7-0 in the third quarter in the shallow end of the pool.
"There is no one in the state who can stop her (Lindgren). She said she was going to turn on the fire today, and she did that."
The Huskies got two more third-quarter goals from Nathanson for a hat trick before another goal by Lang from a tough angle on the right wing made the score 9-1. Grace Steinberg lobbed home a goal for a 13-1 lead before goals by Hannah Prior and Lindgren accounted for the final score.
"I thought we played them well in the first half, but any little mistake we made they capitalized on," said Conant coach Justin Bickus, whose team has reached seven straight sectional finals. "We played a tough schedule all year, and playing in these big games is super important."