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Evanston Township High School head coach Maggie Hatcher asked her team a simple question on the last day of the high school water polo season.
Why not us?
Defending state champion Stevenson High School had the answer, but not before the conclusion of a journey that produced the best state tournament finish in Wildkit history. The Patriot girls scored their second straight Illinois High School Association state championship – and sixth in the last nine years – with a convincing 9-3 triumph over Evanston Saturday night at Stevenson’s pool.
A remarkable ride for the Wildkits ended with ETHS claiming just the second state trophy in program history. Evanston’s girls finished third back in 2004. The season-ending loss left the Kits with a final mark of 29-3-1 under first-year head coach Hatcher.
Tournament wins over Lincoln-Way East (5-4 in the quarterfinals) and Naperville North (3-1 in the semifinals), and even the loss to Stevenson, left the Wildkits feeling like they hadn’t lost the championship – they won second place.
At least that’s how Hatcher felt at the end of a memorable ride.
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“The only thing I’m feeling sad about right now is that they don’t get to play together anymore,” said the ETHS coach. “Of course, I’d have loved to win it, but once we got here [to the title game], I’d have been happy with any outcome.
“I’m proud of these girls – I’m impressed – and I feel that we earned our place here. We didn’t play our best tonight. We have some of the strongest shooters in the state, but we didn’t show it. We had opportunities we couldn’t convert, and that happens.
Feeling the pride
“All I can feel is pride. We left it all in the pool tonight. You can’t ask for a better group of seniors [Nina Kaiser, Evey Harrell, Elizabeth Quail, Aveen Cunningham and Elise Pollack]. We will feel their presence in this program for years to come, because they inspired the younger girls to be the best they could be. They showed up in a way none of us could have anticipated, for every single practice and every single game.”
Cunningham scored a pair of goals and co-captain Harrell added the other in the finale, but the Wildkits only attempted 18 shots overall while bowing to Stevenson for the second time this season. The two teams also played to a 4-4 tie in another meeting.
Emotions spilled over into tears in the aftermath for Harrell.
“They’re tears of joy and of pride for all of the hard work we’ve put in,” Harrell said. “There’s no heartbreak this year, not at all. It was an amazing ride. It’s amazing that we were able to accomplish this.
“I didn’t even think about state [Evanston’s first trip since 2008] until that last New Trier game [in the sectional finals] sealed the deal. Once we beat New Trier we just tried to stay in the present. I think we did a really good job of not getting ahead of ourselves, and we enjoyed every extra day we had with each other.
“There were a lot of nerves coming into this game, there was a lot of chaos, a lot of noise. But I’m so very proud of the way we played.”
Tough defense
Evanston’s tough-as-nails defenders – the Wildkit girls get in your face as soon as you leave the girls locker room – did allow nine goals in the title game, but that total is misleading. The officials blew their whistles frequently, and two of Stevenson’s goals came in “man up” situations when Kit defenders were ejected for actions that were considered too physical.
Two of the other Patriot goals came on penalty shots. Stevenson led 5-2 entering the fourth quarter and put the game out of reach on a rebound goal by Victoria Duncan, and a penalty shot that Olivia Spieth nudged past goalie Kaiser with 3 minutes, 7 seconds left in the season. It was Spieth’s third goal of the game.
In a two-day stretch at the state finals, Evanston faced four players – Sophia Berger of Stevenson, Payton Schrier and Kelsey Wessel of Naperville North, and Lia Delage of Lincoln-Way East – who each scored 100 or more goals during the regular season.
That quartet only mustered a combined five goals and attempted just 16 shots against Evanston’s clinging defense. No help was required, the Kits didn’t try any zone tricks, they just relied as usual on stout 1-on-1 defense from everyone in the pool.
Near shutout
Their finest hour might have been in the semis Saturday. Evanston almost pitched a shutout, a rarity at the state finals or during the regular season.
Naperville’s only goal came when Kaiser accidentally bumped a ball into the cage with 58 seconds left in the game. Credit for the score went to the Huskies’ Schrier, who took the original shot.
But Kaiser offered a mea culpa after goals by Harrell, Maya Vincent and Zayra Arellano provided just enough offense to knock off a Naperville team that had defeated ETHS 10-8 in the season opener.
“I guess you could say I scored that goal,” said the senior standout, who totaled 4 saves. “I didn’t know exactly where the ball was in the pool, and I put my hand up and knocked it in.
“Our defense is extra strong and everyone is really hands on. We’re so much more connected as a team this year and everyone is extremely driven. I trust everyone – we all have each other’s backs – and it’s really refreshing to be able to feel like that.”
“Our defense obviously carried us in this game,” Hatcher added. “I kept saying we need one more goal, we need one more goal [after leading 2-0 entering the fourth quarter] – although I didn’t say it out loud to them – and we finally got one [from Vincent]. I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of having to stay patient.”
‘It wasn’t pretty’
In Friday’s tourney opener, Evanston built a 5-2 advantage, then held on for a 5-4 triumph over Lincoln-Way East. The winners counted two goals from Vincent plus one each from Arellano, Cunningham and Harrell, but had to rely on their experience in winning close games against a tough schedule to pull out the victory.
A perimeter shot by Lincoln-Way’s Delage pierced the Wildkit defense and pulled the Griffins within 5-4 with 3 minutes, 9 seconds left in regulation.
An ejection gave the Griffins a golden opportunity to get even – but Delage’s shot soared too high. In the final seconds, Kaiser tipped away an attempt by Anna Kolozsi, and a shot by Avery Jones at 0:01 on the clock bounced off the side post.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done,” Hatcher said. “All you have to do is score one more than your opponent. Our defense definitely carried us tonight.
“I told the girls that everyone here will battle us for four quarters, so you have to be prepared for that. In the first half, we shot like we were scared. We were a little underwhelming on the shooting side. Defensively, I thought we were very impressive.”
“This was a magical team,” pointed out ETHS junior Grace Cummins after the pool deck started to clear for the last time in 2024. “That’s why this is so hard. Everybody loves each other so much. We were big underdogs, and just getting here is really huge for this team.”
ETHS girls water polo: Remarkable ride ends in 2nd place state finish is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.