Chicagoland Soccer Top 25
By Patrick Z. McGavin
This week the gloves come off.
With the vast majority of suburban and private schools on spring break, the third week of the season was a respite, a transitional moment to shuffle the decks, as it were.
Compared to the boys, the girls already play a compressed season. The coming of April means the arrival of the year’s most significant tournaments, with back-to-back wrecking balls in the form of the two most competitive and deepest tournaments outside of the state playoffs: the third iteration of the Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Tournament and the Naperville Invitational.
The Malnati tournament kicks off April 6 at three sites (New Trier, Evanston, Loyola) with nine of the 12 teams ranked in this week’s poll. Two others, Carmel and Loyola, are listed in honorable mention.
The Naperville Invitational begins pool play the following week.
Furthermore, the reconfigured St. Charles Augsburg-Druch Invitational now includes no. 2 St. Charles North in addition to traditional host and no. 8 St. Charles East, which just blitzed its three opponents in the Huntley Invitational field by by a margin of 24-0 en route to the championship.
The PepsiCo Showdown also starts Saturday with an altered format.
As if there were not enough, many of the best conferences start play this week or feature top-flight showdowns, like no. 4 Glenbrook South at no. 3 New Trier on Wednesday.
The scarcity of games meant little movement this week, but there were enough games for a couple of programs to make the leap, most significantly Batavia returning from honorable mention to No. 25 after posting two strong victories.
The season kicks into a higher gear this week. Get strapped in and ready for a wild and unpredictable ride.
By Patrick Z. McGavin
This week the gloves come off.
With the vast majority of suburban and private schools on spring break, the third week of the season was a respite, a transitional moment to shuffle the decks, as it were.
Compared to the boys, the girls already play a compressed season. The coming of April means the arrival of the year’s most significant tournaments, with back-to-back wrecking balls in the form of the two most competitive and deepest tournaments outside of the state playoffs: the third iteration of the Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Tournament and the Naperville Invitational.
The Malnati tournament kicks off April 6 at three sites (New Trier, Evanston, Loyola) with nine of the 12 teams ranked in this week’s poll. Two others, Carmel and Loyola, are listed in honorable mention.
The Naperville Invitational begins pool play the following week.
Furthermore, the reconfigured St. Charles Augsburg-Druch Invitational now includes no. 2 St. Charles North in addition to traditional host and no. 8 St. Charles East, which just blitzed its three opponents in the Huntley Invitational field by by a margin of 24-0 en route to the championship.
The PepsiCo Showdown also starts Saturday with an altered format.
As if there were not enough, many of the best conferences start play this week or feature top-flight showdowns, like no. 4 Glenbrook South at no. 3 New Trier on Wednesday.
The scarcity of games meant little movement this week, but there were enough games for a couple of programs to make the leap, most significantly Batavia returning from honorable mention to No. 25 after posting two strong victories.
The season kicks into a higher gear this week. Get strapped in and ready for a wild and unpredictable ride.
Rk | LW | Team | W | L | T | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Barrington | 3 | 0 | 1 | Madi Rosen is a disruptive talent |
2 | 2 | St. Charles North | 2 | 0 | 1 | Sami Rydberg keeping it in family |
3 | 3 | New Trier | 4 | 0 | 3 | Mia Sedgwick is a gifted sophomore |
4 | 4 | Glenbrook South | 7 | 0 | 0 | New Trier showdown Wednesday |
5 | 6 | Evanston | 5 | 0 | 0 | Hadley Bushala is a physical talent |
6 | 7 | Benet | 5 | 0 | 0 | Mia Tommasone is a skilled attacker |
7 | 8 | Fremd | 2 | 1 | 0 | Lauren Burk is an elite defender |
8 | 9 | St. Charles East | 7 | 1 | 0 | Hannah Miller is heady sophomore talent |
9 | 10 | Naperville North | 1 | 2 | 1 | Paige Sylvester wrecks teams defensively |
10 | 11 | Glenbard East | 6 | 1 | 0 | Amy Chiero leads Rams’ attack |
11 | 12 | Lyons | 1 | 0 | 1 | Ava Dallavo is a skilled sophomore |
12 | 13 | WW South | 2 | 0 | 0 | Evelyn Demsher helps control the middle |
13 | 14 | Lane | 5 | 0 | 1 | Brianna Love has 5 shutouts |
14 | 5 | Neuqua Valley | 1 | 2 | 2 | Erin McCarthy is skilled and disruptive talent |
15 | 16 | Sandburg | 5 | 1 | 1 | Tough schedule this week |
16 | 17 | St. Francis | 0 | 1 | 1 | Jill DiTusa is outstanding defender |
17 | 18 | Deerfield | 5 | 2 | 0 | Mallory Sawyer is athletic and dynamic |
18 | 19 | Stevenson | 4 | 0 | 1 | Looking to maintain fast start |
19 | 20 | Wauconda | 3 | 1 | 1 | Abigail McHugh is superb midfielder |
20 | 21 | Waubonsie Valley | 2 | 0 | 1 | Showdown with Naperville North Tuesday |
21 | 15 | Andrew | 6 | 2 | 0 | Getting healthy and dangerous |
22 | 22 | Lake Forest | 3 | 1 | 0 | Ready for Lou Malnati tournament |
23 | 23 | Prospect | 4 | 0 | 2 | Kristen Schneider stabilizes the middle |
24 | 24 | Hersey | 2 | 1 | 1 | Maddy Kim is a skilled young talent |
25 | HM | Batavia | 5 | 1 | 1 | Grace Salyers is strong finisher |
Look out for: Conant, Carmel, Lemont, Maine South, Naperville Central, Cary-Grove, Prairie Ridge, Geneva, Wheaton Academy, Libertyville, St. Ignatius, Loyola, Mother McAuley, Plainfield East, Lincoln-Way Central.