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Girls Water Polo: Trevians close out with losses to Fenwick, Ignatius
Every time New Trier’s girls water polo team tried to get back into Saturday’s state third-place game against St. Ignatius, the Wolfpack had an answer.
Behind three goals apiece from Becky Insalaco and Maggie Maloney, the Wolfpack kept the Trevians at bay all night in a 12-8 win to capture third place.
“We focus a lot on our passing and just getting head of them and to keep going through,” Insalaco said. “We have such a great team this year with a lot of seniors graduating. It was their last game, so we wanted to send them off with a bang.”
After New Trier (27-7-1) took a quick 2-1 lead in the first quarter, St. Ignatius (22-7-1) rattled off five straight goals, two coming from Maloney, to take a 6-2 lead. Two Alexana Astor goals helped New Trier cut the lead to 6-5, but the Wolfpack extended the lead to 8-6 by the half.
The lead swelled to 10-6 after goals from Insalaco and Maloney in the third quarter before the teams exchanged goals in the fourth quarter.
“Our defense let us down, which is really unusual,” New Trier coach Matt Wendt said. “We’re usually very strong on the defensive end. They have some great, talented players. They just beat us one-on-one. That was the difference.
Ignatius fell to Naperville Central in Saturday morning’s semifinal 11-7. The Wolfpack was within two, 6-4, at the half, but couldn’t get closer in the second half. Fernandez scored three times to lead the way.
“It was a really tough game,” St. Ignatius coach Michael Cashman said. “I don’t think the score justified what the game was really like. The best way to look at is is that there are only two teams that can go out a winner, and that’s where we are.”
New Trier dropped a 14-6 decision to defending state champion Fenwick in the semifinals. Isabelle Baneaux was dominant, scoring five the Trevians’ goals.
“It’s a real privilege to be playing on Saturday at state,” Wendt said. “We’re honored to be here and we’re not going to take it for granted. We’re going to try to build on this and really make an impact in years to come.”
