The Naperville Central girls’ water polo team destroyed Waubonsie 13-0 during their game on March 22. Sophomore goalie Maria Danbom was a brick wall, preventing the Warriors’ aggressive offense from scoring a single point.
The Redhawks showcased significant speed, allowing them to quickly maneuver into position to score before the Warriors could recover.
“We have a lot of really strong swimmers on our team,” said varsity head coach Haley Green. “We had a lot of good counterattacks, been really good at pushing up and down the pool, which is a big help for goals because we’re the quickest on offense.”
Despite the Redhawks’ seemingly effortless win, Waubonsie provided a stout defense.
“Waubonsie gave us a really hard competition,” senior captain Fults said. “They had a lot of strong girls. They adjusted really well to our plays.”
Another strength of the Redhawks was their technical execution. The team utilizes man-up plays, which find the best angle to shoot by passing around the goal.
“There was a moment where we all clicked, and our play went into play,” Fults said. “We set up around the pool in our stations, and moved the ball all the way around as the slasher swims and follows the ball, and then they shoot for the middle, the pass goes in, and they score. [Senior Megan Tueting] was doing that, and she had a really nice, clean catch and shoot.”
Other highlights included underclassman stepping up to make their mark on the game. Sophomore Molly Moore and freshman Elyse Gensler made some quick and calculated decisions that contributed to the Redhawk victory.
“Molly had a really great outside shot in the fourth quarter that I really liked,” Green said. “We also saw Elyse with some great defense.”
Fults echoed the praise while highlighting her teammates’ successes.
“Megan had a really nice game, she had a lot of really fast pushes up the pool and a lot of shots,” Fults said. “Elyse also had many fast breaks up the pool. I would also like to highlight Maria. She let in zero goals; she was our own personal brick wall.”
The team has worked vigorously to perform at such a high level. Water polo requires immense commitment, with morning practices, late nights and numerous games each week.
“We’ve been having a great season this year, everyone’s been showing up every day, working hard, and making adjustments to each game in terms of defensive and offensive rotations,” Green said.
The Redhawks have found that their long hours have allowed them to work together and trust each other in the water.
“We’ve grown to find each other in the pool and trust one another, knowing that Maria can give us a nice pass in the back,” Green said.
As for the rest of the season, the team hopes to advance to State after competing at the Sectional tournament on May 14 and 15. The top team at the Sectional competition will advance to State. The Redhawks will be pitted against the Naperville North Huskies, but have been working on a strategy to contest their rival.
“Our main competition is North,” Fults said. “We’ve been working all season to clean some things up on our end. The last time we saw them, we definitely made a lot of mistakes, and we’ve been working on fixing those when we go against them again.”
The team is preparing for a competitive end of the season and hopes that their hard work will pay off.
“We want to make sure that we can get as far as we can go and that we’re bringing our best effort forth and that we’re challenging every single one of our opponents,” Green said.
