Girls water polo: Hersey downs Buffalo Grove to take MSL East lead

Hersey's girls water polo team came into this season with four straight MId-Suburban East crowns.

The Huskies took a big splash forward on Wednesday for a fifth one.

Led by juniors Victoria Wrona (6 goals) and Clare Corley (4), coach Megan Brownley's team (10-2, 4-0) won an East first-place showdown, 16-7, over visiting Buffalo Grove (8-5, 3-1) in Mt. Prospect.

The Huskies have not lost this season in their home pool, the Prospect Natatorium, including an earlier 14-1 win over BG when they won the Prospect tournament on March 18.

Less than a minute into the game, Wrona connected from 25 feet. Two minutes later, Corley gave the Huskies the lead for good at 2-1 when she rifled in a score from nearly 30 feet to make it 2-1.

"Clare plays the middle so she doesn't get a ton of credit but she played on their center and I thought she did great on her defensively," Brownley said.

Wrona had a great offensive game, scoring three goals in each half.

"I love playing the game so much," said Wrona, whose career high is 8 goals against Prospect. "Honestly, I sit at school all day ready for the game. There is a lot of spirit here with this team and I'm just looking for a good season."

"In a legitimate game and pool like this one, Victoria earned every goal," Brownley said. "She was an animal. She's strong, really fast and she listens. She is very coachable. She wants to get better every practice and every game. We brought her up to varsity for state last year and she did an amazing job. In the summer, she just blossomed by putting in the time and effort."

Thanks to one of 3 goals from freshman Melissa Loch with 16 seconds left, Hersey led 8-3 at half.

The Huskies then set the tone in the second half with a quick goal. Avery Born flipped a nice pass to Wrona, who found herself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. After a few fakes with her arms raised high, Wrona fired home a 6-footer to make it 9-2.

On the next two possessions, BG goalie Ilana Argentar and Hersey keeper Anastasia Smirnova each made clutch stops on tough shots on goal.

Born later got into scoring game herself, twice lobbing in soft shots that found the net. Her second one, a 20-footer from the left side, gave Hersey a 13-4 cushion early in the final quarter.

"I told Avery 'Good job reading the goalie'," Brownley said. "The goalie was far out and she just lobbed it to the opposite corner."

Hersey's other goal was a nifty one by senior tri-captain Annika Lindberg, who patiently faked a few shots before firing into the right corner from eight feet out for a 6-2 lead.

"We knew they were going to shoot from the outside," Brownley added. "We figured out their offense quickly and it was like 'OK, cut off the pass from the goalie and I think our defense stopped up and did that."

Sophomore Emily Bielski and junior Gabriella Olbur stepped up with 3 goals apiece for BG while sophomore Addison Adrowski had one. Bielski scored on back-to-back goals in the fourth quarter, the latter off a steal near the middle of the pool followed by a strong drive to goal for a 5-footer.

"Emily had a great game," said BG coach Michael McPartlin. "I thought we made really good improvement from the first time we played them. I felt we looked a lot stronger on offense. We're a pretty young team that graduated 14 seniors and none of the girls who were in the pool had played any varsity minutes. So it gets me really excited as a coach to see the kind of level they are at right now. I look forward to getting better as a program and growing and getting stronger. They bond really well, pass the ball well and they communicate."