Illpolo.com 2007

Sunday Update (3.11.07)

2007-03-12T06:01:00.000-05:00

The following information will be coming tomorrow...Updated Week 1 ranking for boys and girls...Super Ballers and Ballers of the Week...an article about the Evanston-Sandburg girls game at the New Trier Tournament...and maybe video highlights (a big maybe) from some of the weekend action. Stay tuned!

3:00am update...rankings are done and updated, but it is way too early in the season to really determine how accurate they will end up being. There are many teams who have played without key players due to swim meets and other obligations, which accounts for a good deal of strange results, especially the past weekend's tournaments. Also updated is the Super Ballers link for Week 1 - those awards went to Mitch Tucker of Palatine and Anne Frigo of Evanston.

Saturday Tournament Recaps (3.10.07)

2007-03-10T21:10:00.000-06:00

It may take awhile to get this updated, as I was trying to be in 4 places at the same time and have to write recaps from the random scribbling that I did and also capture and edit videos from some of the games as well. Meanwhile, here are the list of winners this weekend:

BOYS

Naperville Tournament-Naperville North went 3-0 and wins the tournament after beating Naperville Central 8-7 on Friday night.

Glenbrook South Tournament-Palatine beats Libertyville, St Viator, and Glenbrook South in the title game to go 3-0 and win the tournament at GBS.

St Rita Tournament-St Rita scores in double figures in all four games and cruises to a 16-6 title game victory over Lane at their own tournament.

Conant Tournament-St Ignatius dominates at the Conant Tournament, going 4-0 and beating Conant in the virtual title game 15-3.

GIRLS

Naperville Tournament-Naperville Central finishes the weekend with a 3-0 record, with an important early season win over rival Neuqua Valley 7-2.

Northside Tournament-York wins close games over Northside, Marian, and Hinsdale South to win the Northside Tournament for the third straight year.

Loyola Tournament-Loyola beats Fremd 11-8 in a virtual title game and goes 3-0 to claim victory in their own tournament.

Hinsdale Central Tournament-LincolnWay East earns hard-earned victories against Hinsdale Central and Barrington to win Saturday's mini-tournament.

New Trier Tournament-Sandburg beats New Trier and St Viator, then loses by one to Evanston. Evanston beats St Viator and Sandburg but loses to New Trier by five. New Trier beats Evanston and St Viator but loses to Sandburg by eight. In other words, it all comes down to a tiebreaker...but each team did earn one quality win this weekend to get the season rolling. (I'll confirm a champion later, perhaps).

Friday Night Recaps (3.09.07)

2007-03-09T21:34:00.000-06:00

WAUBONSIE VALLEY 12 NEUQUA VALLEY 4 (BOYS)
Waubonsie Valley jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter and never looked back as they cruised to a 12-4 win over Neuqua Valley to start the Naperville Tournament on Friday afternoon. Kyle Drake scored 3 of the first 5 goals for the Warriors, and his 6 total goals led Waubonsie to the victory. Adam Kozak and Jim Zuponeck scored twice in the win, while Kurt Neaderheiser and Andrius Petraitis also scored first half goals for Waubonsie. John Mikuzis scored all 4 goals for Neuqua Valley and cut the Waubonsie Valley lead down to 9-4 late in the third quarter, but Zuponeck closed out the period with a goal and Drake scored twice in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

NAPERVILLE NORTH 8 NAPERVILLE CENTRAL 7 (BOYS)
Naperville North denied a man-up situation for Naperville Central with five seconds remaining to win their first game of the Naperville Tournament 8-7 on Friday night. Brandon Glynn scored 4 goals and Alex Buck added 2 scores as the Huskies held on to a narrow lead for the entire second half before emerging with a victory. Mark Tatara and Brian Natke also scored once for the Huskies, while Max Saltzman scored all 7 goals for the Redhawks. In a frantic final period, Saltzman scored on a rebound after his penalty shot hit the post to get Central to within one goal of the Huskies, but Glynn added his fourth score from outside on a man-up situation to put North ahead 8-6 with 3:41 left to play. Central goalie Tyler Kelley denied Glynn on a breakaway chance with 2:37 remaining, and Zach Cejna drew a penalty shot that Saltzman converted with 1:22 left in the game. North had the ball with a chance to run out the clock in the final twenty seconds, but Central forced a turnover and an ejection with five seconds remaining. After a timeout, Saltzman's last ditch effort from outside was deflected and Naperville North held on for the 8-7 win.

LYONS 11 YORK 1 (GIRLS)
The Lions used a balanced attack to cruise to an 11-1 win over York in the West Suburban Conference matchup on Friday. Katherine Delacey scored 3 goals to lead the team, while Megan Kono and Joanna Curran each added 2 goals in the victory. Kathleen Ellison, Mary McFadden, Amy Yant, and Carrie DeBoer also scored for Lyons, who improved to 3-0 on the season.

ANDREW 11 MORTON 9 (GIRLS)
Stacey Fischer and Ashley Stromberg teamed up to provide all of the scoring for Andrew as they held off Morton 11-9 in nonconference action on Friday night. Fischer led the way with 7 goals and 3 steals, while Stromberg added 4 goals and 4 steals in the victory. April Towry also stood out on the defensive end with 3 steals as the Thunderbolts improved to 2-1 on the season.

Thursday Night Recaps (3.08.07)

2007-03-08T18:17:00.000-06:00

HOFFMAN ESTATES 10 PROSPECT 8 (BOYS)
Justin Simanis scored 5 goals and Piyum Zonooz added 3 scores as Hoffman Estates improved to 3-0 on the season with a 10-8 win over Prospect on Thursday night. Tony Biars made 18 saves for the Hawks, who are off to their best start in IHSA history under head coach Chris Fetterman. Pat Mason also chipped in with 2 goals for Hoffman, while Prospect's Sean Hansen led the way on offense for the Knights with 3 goals.

PALATINE 19 ROLLING MEADOWS 11 (BOYS)
Palatine improved to 2-0 in both the MSL and overall with a 19-11 win over Rolling Meadows on Thursday night. Mitch Tucker was unstoppable on the offensive end, pouring in 12 goals and drawing 3 penalty shots in the victory. Whitaker Davis also contributed on offense with 5 goals, while goalie Spencer Blackham made 13 saves in the net for the Pirates.

HOMEWOOD-FLOSSMOOR 10 ST RITA 9 (BOYS)
In a back and forth game, Homewood-Flossmoor outlasted St Rita to win 10-9 in overtime on Thursday night. With St Rita leading 8-7 in the final minute, Homewood-Flossmoor's Kevin Jansen forced a turnover with six seconds remaining and assisted Greg Nelson for the game-tying goal with two seconds left to send the game into overtime. The Vikings were led by Greg Nelson's 4 goals, while Luke Ginger led St Rita with 7 goals in the loss.

STEVENSON 6 MUNDELEIN 3 (GIRLS)
Megan Pagano scored 3 goals to lead Stevenson to a 6-3 win over rival Mundelein in an early season North Suburban Conference matchup. Mundelein took an early lead in the first quarter on a goal by sophomore Michelle Lau, but Pagano quickly responded for the Patriots to tie the score at 1-1. Stevenson then ran off four straight goals to take a 5-1 lead into the fourth quarter and held off a late charge by Mundelein to earn the win. Amy Michelau and Rachel Cliburn also scored for the Patriots, while Alice Denny and Maura Coughlin each scored once for Mundelein.

NORTHSIDE 18 MORGAN PARK 7 (BOYS)
NORTHSIDE 11 MORGAN PARK 2 (GIRLS)
Julian Dale scored 9 goals and Max Kakacek scored 7 times as Northside earned an 18-7 victory over Morgan Park in Chicago Public League action. Meanwhile, Natalie Klontz scored 4 goals and recorded 2 steals to lead the Northside girls' team to their first win of the season, an 11-2 victory over Morgan Park. Sophomore Clare Donnelly scored once and added an assist and 3 steals, while goalie Liz Granato made 13 saves, added 5 steals, and held Morgan Park to only 2 goals.

OTHER TOP PERFORMERS
-Andrew Cenelli scored 6 goals to lead Schaumburg to a 16-4 victory over Wheeling and helped the Saxons improve to 3-0 on the season.
-Lyons' goalies Emily Bornhoff and Carrie DeBoer teamed up to earn an 11-0 shutout win over Hinsdale South in West Suburban Conference action on Thursday night.
-Scott Nemecek recorded 6 goals as Lyons defeated Hinsdale South 19-7 in the WSC matchup.

Wednesday Game Recaps (3.07.07)

2007-03-07T22:30:00.000-06:00

PALATINE 19 PROSPECT 4 (BOYS)
Palatine kicked off their MSL season with a strong showing against Prospect, beating the Knights 19-4 on Wednesday night. The Pirates were led on the offensive end by Mitch Tucker (7 goals) and Whitaker Davis (6 goals), and Spencer Blackham made 9 saves and recorded 9 steals to help Palatine cruise to the victory.

EVANSTON 9 MUNDELEIN 8 (BOYS)
Evanston jumped out to a 6-0 lead on Mundelein in the opening quarter and held off a late surge to win at home 9-8 on Wednesday night. After Mundelein tied the score at 8-8 on a breakaway goal in the closing minutes, Wildkits' freshman Matt Wich scored on a sweep shot to seal the win for Evanston. Grant Gates led the Mustangs with 4 goals and 4 ejections drawn, while Ricky Lukacs also scored 2 goals for Mundelein in the loss.

FENWICK 20 LOYOLA 9 (GIRLS)
Morgan Bonk poured in 9 goals while Alison Pavlik and Erin Leary each scored 4 times to pace Fenwick to a 20-9 win over Loyola in MCAC Conference action. Colleen Shaw scored 4 goals for the Ramblers in a losing cause.

NAPERVILLE CENTRAL 18 YORK 8 (GIRLS)
Nikki Nelson recorded 6 goals and Kara Wilson added 3 scores and 4 assists in the Redhawks' 18-8 win over York in Elmhurst on Wednesday night. Central goalie Haley Nelson made a total of 9 saves in the win.

LWC 18 BREMEN 4 (GIRLS)

LWC senior Jackey Harvey led the way with 5 goals in an 18-4 conference win over Bremen on Wednesday evening. Kaylee Meyers also scored 4 goals and sophomore Anna Whyte tallied 3 scores in the win for LWC.

ANDREW 12 RICHARDS 5 (GIRLS)
Andrew led at the half 4-2 before pulling away to beat Richards 12-5 on Wednesday night. Ashley Stromberg and Stacey Fischer both scored 5 goals to lead the Thunderbolts to their first win of the season. Andrew goalie Anissa Torres also made 8 saves in the victory.

Tuesday Night Recaps (3.06.07)

2007-03-06T20:43:00.000-06:00

ANDREW 6 HOMEWOOD-FLOSSMOOR 5 (BOYS)
Driver Ryan Joritez scored 3 times to propel the Thunderbolts to a 6-5 season opening win over Homewood-Flossmoor on Tuesday night. Senior defender Tim Arif added a goal, 5 steals, and 3 assists and goalies Mark Kircher and Scott Boutos teamed up to stop 26 shots and allow only 5 goals.

LYONS 18 OAK PARK 8 (BOYS)
LYONS 11 OAK PARK 7 (GIRLS)
Scott Nemecek had 4 goals and Peter Cosentino added 3 scores to lead Lyons past Oak Park 18-8 in boys' action, while Katherine Delacey helped LT defeat Oak Park 11-7 with 4 goals.

GLENBROOK NORTH 11 MUNDELEIN 10 (GIRLS)
Jamie Flood led the Spartans to an 11-10 upset win over Mundelein with a 7 goal performance. Emma Goldman, Andrea Solochek, Sara Callahan, and Jenna Georgacakis each scored once in the win for GBN. Alice Denny was the leading scorer for Mundelein with 3 tallies, while Michelle Lau and Maura Coughlin each added two goals in the loss. The Mustangs were without offensive standout Siobhan Larsen due to illness.

LOYOLA 9 STEVENSON 8 (GIRLS)
Colleen Shaw paced the Ramblers in a 9-8 win over Stevenson on Tuesday night with 7 goals. Liz Shewchuck and Carly Levison also scored once for Loyola in the victory, while Stevenson was led by Amy Michelau (4 goals) and Megan Pagano (2 goals).

NAPERVILLE CENTRAL 14 MARIAN CATHOLIC (GIRLS)
Kara Wilson scored 4 goals and Nikki Nelson added 3 scores to help the Redhawks cruise to a 14-1 win over Marian Catholic in the season opener for both teams.

Monday Night Recaps (3.05.07)

2007-03-06T01:56:00.000-06:00

BOYS
NEW TRIER 14 EVANSTON 9
New Trier got things going and led Evanston 8-4 at halftime en route to a 14-9 win on Monday night. Rick Farmer and Ben Wampler led the Trevians with 4 goals apiece and six other players scored for New Trier in the win.

HOFFMAN ESTATES 12 ST CHARLES EAST 10
Hoffman Estates came from behind in the final two minutes to knock off St Charles East 12-10 in the season opener for both teams on Monday night. Piyum Zonooz led the Hawks with 5 goals, while Justin Simanis also contributed 3 tallies in the win. St Charles East led 9-8 heading into the final period and added a goal with 2:42 remaining, but Zonooz, who did not start due to illness, led the Hawks with 3 of their final 4 goals as they started the season off with a win.

OTHER BOYS SCORES
St Ignatius 7 Young 4

OTHER GIRLS SCORES
St Ignatius 13 Young 3

2007 Season Finally Arrives

2007-03-05T10:32:00.000-06:00

With a national holiday on March 5 and many schools not in session, the 2007 high school water polo competition season gets underway with more of a whimper than a bang tonight. However, one key boys' matchup from the first evening will see Evanston travel to Winnetka to take on rival New Trier at 5:30pm.

OTHER BOYS GAMES
Hoffman Estates and St Charles East do battle in non-conference action at 5:00pm.

OTHER GIRLS GAMES
The St Ignatius girls return six starters to a team that finished second in the state in 2006 and they play host to Whitney Young at 5:00pm at UIC in Chicago.

The new email address is illpolo2007@yahoo.com and the new AIM is illpolo2007 - Send all updates and scores to either of these places.

New E-mail Address

2007-01-12T14:12:00.000-06:00

Due to some security issues (mainly because someone stole my credit card info and tried to buy a plasma TV with it from Curcuit City), I will be changing the e-mail address for Illpolo.com at this time. The new e-mail address that you can send to is illpolo2007@yahoo.com and this change will be made on the site this weekend.

If anyone has sent an email over the past week, I have been unable to access it; if you have any information or questions that you would like expressed, please send them to illpolo2007@yahoo.com.

2007 Schedules Posted

2007-01-06T15:31:00.000-06:00

Nearly all of the 2007 season schedules are now posted on Illpolo.com. There are still a handful of team schedules that I am missing, so there will be a few games that get filled in over the next few weeks, but for the most part, everything is listed as close to accurately as possible.

Some of the tournament teams are still a mystery, as I've labeled the missing teams with TBA...if you happen to know who is taking part in some of these individual tournaments, please let me know at illpolo@yahoo.com

Otherwise, I'll be looking for any double postings or some really minor mistakes with starting times...although some things may not be close to 100% accurate until opening day - which is March 5 (58 days away!!!).

All-Illpolo, Team Previews, Corrections, Etc.

2007-01-03T09:40:00.000-06:00

I'm trying the entire site updated before the first week of January ends so we have a completely updated water polo site for the 2007 season with two months left to go before the actual games start. Getting all of the schedules isn't realistic but I can find and add as many of those as I can get my hands on (hint, hint...if you have a schedule you can send me or a link to the online version that would be greatly appreciated).

Well, the main purpose of this post is to discuss the All-Illpolo Teams and the soon-to-be posted Team Previews for the Top 20-30 teams and such. Without any kind of resource to look up the actual spelling of names, whether or not someone has graduated, or whether someone has moved, is injured, doesn't feel like playing this season, or decided to join the Fencing Team instead of play water polo...I am left to guess or assume that certain players will be playing for their respective teams this year. Also, there are teams who I just cannot find any information that I need about, which makes it hard to give anyone any props or recognition or even figure out how a team will do for this upcoming season, SO...

What I am asking is, if you say any minor mistakes like spelling errors; if you see anyone who is not playing this year or has graduated; or if you see someone not listed who probably should be but I overlooked them, please let me know as soon as possible. The main objectives are to #1) be accurate with names and teams so that players get recognition, college coaches can see their names, etc. and #2) to make sure that someone who definitely deserves to be recognized get their share of publicity.

NOW...if you want to take the time to send a preview for your team that is fine and I will take that into account, ALTHOUGH it would be so much more preferable if you urged your coach to do so instead. Especially if they or you feel there is someone missing that shouldn't be...ALSO, if it's someone who COULD be good but hasn't had the chance to show it yet, I'm sure when they get the chance to perform we will catch it here and they will get their fair share of recognition.

WOW, this is a long post...but last thing - as always, keep in mind that these lists and previews are just one opinion and are not meant to be any kind of "authority" on the sport or anything. And again, if there is a blatant mistake or error, just let me know and I'll correct it and get things right.

Let's start the polo season early!

The New Illpolo 2007 Blog

2006-11-24T02:26:00.000-06:00

While the water polo season is just a few months away, the Illpolo.com site is being updated in preparation for another great year. With the first post of the new blog, here is what is new with the new Illpolo.com web site for the upcoming season...

+ Complete overhaul of the site to move from 2006 to 2007
+ Google search at the bottom of the page, allowing users to look up information on specific items or words just on the Illpolo.com site
+ Pre-order forms/information for the 2007 Season DVD, to be completed and sent out at the end of the season
+ The 2007 Preseason All-Illpolo Teams
+ The 2007 Rankings and Season Preview
+ Links to all of the videos and awards from the 2006 Season
+ New logos, advertisers, links, and banners
+ An easy way to donate using PayPal or a credit card
+ A new and fresh-looking blog
+ New contact information via AIM
+ And much, much more...