Neuqua Valley, Carmel,
Barrington 2 games from title
By Matt Le Cren
Everyone knew that a Naperville area team was going to advance to the Class 3A state semifinals.
Few guessed that team would be Neuqua Valley.
Yet here are the Wildcats, at the state finals for the first time since they won their only state championship in 2005.
Neuqua Valley (18-3-2), which faces Collinsville at 5 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville, emerged from the crucible of the Metea Valley Sectional despite being seeded fifth.
“I’m just so happy with the girls and how hard they worked because there was no expectations of us this year from anyone,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “It was Waubonsie [Valley], it was Naperville North, it was everyone but us.
“So I think we were the only ones who believed in ourselves and we told [the players] at the beginning, there aren’t any superstars or anything so it’s going to have to be a team effort of hard work. We’re one-of-four remaining so it has to say something about the kids and how hard they worked.”
Indeed, Waubonsie Valley, which had seven Division I signees back from a team that finished third last year, was the preseason favorite in the Naperville area.
Then Naperville North won 13-straight games and the Naperville Invitational to soar to No. 3 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com national rankings.
Even Benet, which was unbeaten in its first 12 games and won 17 games, was seeded one spot higher than Neuqua Valley.
But the Wildcats beat Benet 2-0 in the regional final and then vanquished Naperville North, which had knocked them out of the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, with a 3-2 win in the sectional semifinals.
Metea Valley did the Wildcats a favor by upsetting Waubonsie Valley in the other sectional semifinal and Neuqua in turn eliminated the Mustangs in the sectional final.
A 2-0 win over Hinsdale Central in Tuesday’s Lewis University Supersectional then put the Wildcats in a place only they expected to be.
“I’m so excited,” said sophomore defender Nicole Mondi, who scored the game-winning goal, the first tally of her high school career, against Hinsdale Central. “It’s just such a great opportunity to share with my teammates, especially since we were so underrated in the beginning and now we can finally show people how much we have to offer.”
Neuqua Valley is located less than seven miles from the site of the state finals, but it must have felt like 1,000 miles to the Wildcats as they struggled and failed to get out of the sectional for nine-consecutive seasons.
“We’ve had some really good teams, and it has been rather disappointing falling to North these past couple years,” senior goalkeeper Hannah Parrish said. “This definitely means a lot to this class.
“Five-of-the-eight seniors have been on this varsity team since they were freshmen, and I know all of us have been trying to make our way [to] state since we were freshman.”
Though the Wildcats have six Division I signees in Parrish (Baylor), defenders Sophia Moreau (Bowling Green), Dannah Williams (Purdue) and Tatiana Espinoza (North Dakota), midfielder Lauren Ciesla (Illinois) and forward Kiley Czerwinski (Illinois State), none is considered a nationally ranked recruit.
“People rank by the individual, but success comes from a team,” Parrish said. “That’s honestly what makes us so strong is that we play so well together.
“We’re a family. We’re more than just a team or group of girls thrown together. We play for our school, we play for each other.”
The Wildcats failed to get out of group play at the Naperville Invitational, failing to score a goal in losses to Plainfield North and Conant. But their offense has started to pick during its current 10-game winning streak.
Czerwinski leads the team with 13 goals, while freshman Alyssa Bombacino has 10 goals and five assists and Ciesla nine goals and four assists. Freshman winger Jamie Goralski has had an immediate impact with a team-leading 11 assists to go with two goals, including the game-tying goal against Naperville North.
But Neuqua’s strong suit has been defense. Parrish has 13 shutouts and a 0.58 goals-against average as the Wildcats have given up only 12 goals, two fewer than Collinsville.
The back line of Mondi, Williams, Espinoza and Sophia Moreau has been brilliant, conceding just twice in five playoff games and given up two goals in a match only twice.
“[It is] a bunch of no-name kids that are just playing so hard,” Joe Moreau said. “There is no Megan Oyster in this group or Hope D’Addario.
“Nicole has the potential to be a superstar, but she’s only a sophomore, and Dannah is just so underrated. She’s solid.
“Tati just does her job. You look at her, and you think they should be able to beat her every single time and no one can. She’s smart. It’s kind of fun to watch it, and they have fun together.”
Parrish, in fact, has had few opportunities to flash her skills. She typically goes long stretches without having to make a tough save and has recorded 88 overall.
“We work really well together,” Parrish said. “I think that’s our biggest thing.
“My back line is a very hard-working group of girls and they have definitely helped me a lot this year. I know they have my back and they know I have theirs, so there’s definitely a bond.”
It is a bond Collinsville (21-3-1) will have a tough time breaking. The Kahoks, who are in the semifinals for the first time since 1988, when they lost to eventual state champion Naperville North, have been slightly more prolific than the Wildcats but have just three players with more than six goals.
Seniors Sophia Sharos leads Collinsville with 17 goals and 10 assists and senior Mikayla McCarthy has 14 goals, but the Kahoks have only four other seniors on the roster, which could make for slim pickings against Neuqua’s veteran back line.
“[The Wildcats] just play hard and aggressive without fouling,” Joe Moreau said. “They cut service to the ball, they give great support angles. And you’ve got to trust your goalie to make a couple of big saves in each game and Hannah has been able to do that.”
If the Wildcats beat Collinsville they will be considered underdogs against either defending state champion New Trier or Barrington, who face off in the second semifinal.
Barrington (21-1-4) boasts another tremendous scorer in senior Jenna Szczesny, who has used her seemingly unstoppable combination of strength and speed to rack up 37 goals and nine assists. The Loyola recruit has 102 career goals.
But no other player has more than seven goals for the Fillies, who are making their sixth state finals appearance but are still searching for their first state title. The Fillies made the championship match once, losing 2-1 to New Trier in 2006, and were third last year after dropping a 1-0 decision to Hinsdale Central in the semifinals.
“We’re playing the defending state champ, so I guess you could say we’re the underdog,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “But we haven’t really thought about it that way.
“We just want to go out there and win a game. We want play our game and play it hard, and we want to keep it simple.”
Barrington has two other star players in senior goalie Hannah Luedtke, a four-year starter who has a 0.33 GAA in 18 games this spring, and senior midfielder Ann Marie Niro, a Notre Dame signee who has four goals and seven assists.
Sophomore midfielder Sophia Spinell has verbally committed to Miami of Ohio and sophomore defender Jackie Batliner is headed to DePaul. Spinell has seven goals and a team-high 11 assists.
“We have a lot of girls who can play well,” Stengren said. “I really think that every team here has the capability of winning the state title. It’s the team that plays the most consistent that will win.”
New Trier (25-1-1) has given up just 12 goals and the Trevians have one of the best forwards in the state in junior Kelly Maday, who has 20 goals and 27 assists.
The quartet of teams has some experience with each other.
Neuqua Valley tied Barrington 1-1 on March 18, which was Neuqua’s season opener and the second game of the year for Barrington.
The sole defeats for New Trier and Barrington came against Naperville North, which would seem encouraging to Neuqua Valley, but Maday and forward Maggie Armstrong both sat out New Trier’s 3-1 loss to the Huskies in the Naperville Invitational final on May 1.
Neuqua Valley has not played Collinsville and they have only one common opponent. The Wildcats beat Incarnate Word 2-1 while the Kahoks won one game and tied another against the St. Louis power.
All four teams are ranked in the top 25 of Top Drawer Soccer's weekly national rankings: New Trier (third); Barrington (sixth); Neuqua Valley (no. 11, up from 20); and Collinsville (no. 23 up from 30).
Class 2A
A step down in class has led to a step up in fortune for Carmel, which advanced to its first state semifinal in its first season in Class 2A.
The Corsairs lost their opening regional game in Class 3A last year, but have enjoyed one of their best seasons ever and take a 19-3-1 record into Friday’s 1 p.m. semifinal versus Lemont.
“We’ve had a great year,” Carmel coach John Halloran said. “Our only losses were nonconference games with some extenuating circumstances. We’re ready.”
The Corsairs’ only losses came against three 3A schools: Stevenson, and ranked Lake Zurich and Loyola. Two of the defeats came in the Corsairs final regular season matches.
They are undefeated against 2A competition, went 10-0 to win the East Suburban Catholic Conference crown and have outscored their playoff opponents 25-0.
Carmel had to win two tough games at the Saint Viator Sectional, first taking out defending state champion Lake Forest 2-0 in the semifinals before ousting rival Saint Viator by the same score. That was followed by a 5-0 cakewalk over Chicago Public League side Payton in the Concordia Chicago Supersectional.
“We haven’t looked past anybody,” Halloran said. “We’ve been really going at this one game at a time. It’s a cliché, but even in the regional final against Grayslake Central we approached it as if the score was 0-0. We won that 6-0.”
The return of senior twins McKenzie and Megan Runyan after a year off to play club soccer has boosted the Corsairs. Sophomore midfielder Angela Salvi leads the team in scoring with 22 goals, but McKenzie Runyan has been the main playmaker with 16 goals and 13 assists. Megan Runyan, a defender, has five goals and six assists.
Another senior, midfielder Jennifer Doyle, has eight goals and four assists while midfielders Kayla Handel and Erin Johnston have combined for 19 assists.
Lemont (18-4-3) is in the semifinals for the fourth time since 2009 but the Indians have yet to win a title, taking second in 2009, third in 2011 and fourth in 2013.
They have four players with at least 10 goals, led by senior forward Aleksandra Mihailovic’s 27.
The other 2A semifinal pits Notre Dame (Peoria, 18-4-4) against Glenwood (17-4-3) at 11 a.m. Those two teams tied 0-0 on April 11.
Glenwood is making its fourth-consecutive finals appearance and eighth since 2001. The Titans won the 2013 state title and were third last spring.
Notre Dame (Peoria) is in the semifinals for just the second time. The Irish were fourth in 2003.
Barrington 2 games from title
By Matt Le Cren
Everyone knew that a Naperville area team was going to advance to the Class 3A state semifinals.
Few guessed that team would be Neuqua Valley.
Yet here are the Wildcats, at the state finals for the first time since they won their only state championship in 2005.
Neuqua Valley (18-3-2), which faces Collinsville at 5 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville, emerged from the crucible of the Metea Valley Sectional despite being seeded fifth.
“I’m just so happy with the girls and how hard they worked because there was no expectations of us this year from anyone,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “It was Waubonsie [Valley], it was Naperville North, it was everyone but us.
“So I think we were the only ones who believed in ourselves and we told [the players] at the beginning, there aren’t any superstars or anything so it’s going to have to be a team effort of hard work. We’re one-of-four remaining so it has to say something about the kids and how hard they worked.”
Indeed, Waubonsie Valley, which had seven Division I signees back from a team that finished third last year, was the preseason favorite in the Naperville area.
Then Naperville North won 13-straight games and the Naperville Invitational to soar to No. 3 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com national rankings.
Even Benet, which was unbeaten in its first 12 games and won 17 games, was seeded one spot higher than Neuqua Valley.
But the Wildcats beat Benet 2-0 in the regional final and then vanquished Naperville North, which had knocked them out of the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, with a 3-2 win in the sectional semifinals.
Metea Valley did the Wildcats a favor by upsetting Waubonsie Valley in the other sectional semifinal and Neuqua in turn eliminated the Mustangs in the sectional final.
A 2-0 win over Hinsdale Central in Tuesday’s Lewis University Supersectional then put the Wildcats in a place only they expected to be.
“I’m so excited,” said sophomore defender Nicole Mondi, who scored the game-winning goal, the first tally of her high school career, against Hinsdale Central. “It’s just such a great opportunity to share with my teammates, especially since we were so underrated in the beginning and now we can finally show people how much we have to offer.”
Neuqua Valley is located less than seven miles from the site of the state finals, but it must have felt like 1,000 miles to the Wildcats as they struggled and failed to get out of the sectional for nine-consecutive seasons.
“We’ve had some really good teams, and it has been rather disappointing falling to North these past couple years,” senior goalkeeper Hannah Parrish said. “This definitely means a lot to this class.
“Five-of-the-eight seniors have been on this varsity team since they were freshmen, and I know all of us have been trying to make our way [to] state since we were freshman.”
Though the Wildcats have six Division I signees in Parrish (Baylor), defenders Sophia Moreau (Bowling Green), Dannah Williams (Purdue) and Tatiana Espinoza (North Dakota), midfielder Lauren Ciesla (Illinois) and forward Kiley Czerwinski (Illinois State), none is considered a nationally ranked recruit.
“People rank by the individual, but success comes from a team,” Parrish said. “That’s honestly what makes us so strong is that we play so well together.
“We’re a family. We’re more than just a team or group of girls thrown together. We play for our school, we play for each other.”
The Wildcats failed to get out of group play at the Naperville Invitational, failing to score a goal in losses to Plainfield North and Conant. But their offense has started to pick during its current 10-game winning streak.
Czerwinski leads the team with 13 goals, while freshman Alyssa Bombacino has 10 goals and five assists and Ciesla nine goals and four assists. Freshman winger Jamie Goralski has had an immediate impact with a team-leading 11 assists to go with two goals, including the game-tying goal against Naperville North.
But Neuqua’s strong suit has been defense. Parrish has 13 shutouts and a 0.58 goals-against average as the Wildcats have given up only 12 goals, two fewer than Collinsville.
The back line of Mondi, Williams, Espinoza and Sophia Moreau has been brilliant, conceding just twice in five playoff games and given up two goals in a match only twice.
“[It is] a bunch of no-name kids that are just playing so hard,” Joe Moreau said. “There is no Megan Oyster in this group or Hope D’Addario.
“Nicole has the potential to be a superstar, but she’s only a sophomore, and Dannah is just so underrated. She’s solid.
“Tati just does her job. You look at her, and you think they should be able to beat her every single time and no one can. She’s smart. It’s kind of fun to watch it, and they have fun together.”
Parrish, in fact, has had few opportunities to flash her skills. She typically goes long stretches without having to make a tough save and has recorded 88 overall.
“We work really well together,” Parrish said. “I think that’s our biggest thing.
“My back line is a very hard-working group of girls and they have definitely helped me a lot this year. I know they have my back and they know I have theirs, so there’s definitely a bond.”
It is a bond Collinsville (21-3-1) will have a tough time breaking. The Kahoks, who are in the semifinals for the first time since 1988, when they lost to eventual state champion Naperville North, have been slightly more prolific than the Wildcats but have just three players with more than six goals.
Seniors Sophia Sharos leads Collinsville with 17 goals and 10 assists and senior Mikayla McCarthy has 14 goals, but the Kahoks have only four other seniors on the roster, which could make for slim pickings against Neuqua’s veteran back line.
“[The Wildcats] just play hard and aggressive without fouling,” Joe Moreau said. “They cut service to the ball, they give great support angles. And you’ve got to trust your goalie to make a couple of big saves in each game and Hannah has been able to do that.”
If the Wildcats beat Collinsville they will be considered underdogs against either defending state champion New Trier or Barrington, who face off in the second semifinal.
Barrington (21-1-4) boasts another tremendous scorer in senior Jenna Szczesny, who has used her seemingly unstoppable combination of strength and speed to rack up 37 goals and nine assists. The Loyola recruit has 102 career goals.
But no other player has more than seven goals for the Fillies, who are making their sixth state finals appearance but are still searching for their first state title. The Fillies made the championship match once, losing 2-1 to New Trier in 2006, and were third last year after dropping a 1-0 decision to Hinsdale Central in the semifinals.
“We’re playing the defending state champ, so I guess you could say we’re the underdog,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “But we haven’t really thought about it that way.
“We just want to go out there and win a game. We want play our game and play it hard, and we want to keep it simple.”
Barrington has two other star players in senior goalie Hannah Luedtke, a four-year starter who has a 0.33 GAA in 18 games this spring, and senior midfielder Ann Marie Niro, a Notre Dame signee who has four goals and seven assists.
Sophomore midfielder Sophia Spinell has verbally committed to Miami of Ohio and sophomore defender Jackie Batliner is headed to DePaul. Spinell has seven goals and a team-high 11 assists.
“We have a lot of girls who can play well,” Stengren said. “I really think that every team here has the capability of winning the state title. It’s the team that plays the most consistent that will win.”
New Trier (25-1-1) has given up just 12 goals and the Trevians have one of the best forwards in the state in junior Kelly Maday, who has 20 goals and 27 assists.
The quartet of teams has some experience with each other.
Neuqua Valley tied Barrington 1-1 on March 18, which was Neuqua’s season opener and the second game of the year for Barrington.
The sole defeats for New Trier and Barrington came against Naperville North, which would seem encouraging to Neuqua Valley, but Maday and forward Maggie Armstrong both sat out New Trier’s 3-1 loss to the Huskies in the Naperville Invitational final on May 1.
Neuqua Valley has not played Collinsville and they have only one common opponent. The Wildcats beat Incarnate Word 2-1 while the Kahoks won one game and tied another against the St. Louis power.
All four teams are ranked in the top 25 of Top Drawer Soccer's weekly national rankings: New Trier (third); Barrington (sixth); Neuqua Valley (no. 11, up from 20); and Collinsville (no. 23 up from 30).
Class 2A
A step down in class has led to a step up in fortune for Carmel, which advanced to its first state semifinal in its first season in Class 2A.
The Corsairs lost their opening regional game in Class 3A last year, but have enjoyed one of their best seasons ever and take a 19-3-1 record into Friday’s 1 p.m. semifinal versus Lemont.
“We’ve had a great year,” Carmel coach John Halloran said. “Our only losses were nonconference games with some extenuating circumstances. We’re ready.”
The Corsairs’ only losses came against three 3A schools: Stevenson, and ranked Lake Zurich and Loyola. Two of the defeats came in the Corsairs final regular season matches.
They are undefeated against 2A competition, went 10-0 to win the East Suburban Catholic Conference crown and have outscored their playoff opponents 25-0.
Carmel had to win two tough games at the Saint Viator Sectional, first taking out defending state champion Lake Forest 2-0 in the semifinals before ousting rival Saint Viator by the same score. That was followed by a 5-0 cakewalk over Chicago Public League side Payton in the Concordia Chicago Supersectional.
“We haven’t looked past anybody,” Halloran said. “We’ve been really going at this one game at a time. It’s a cliché, but even in the regional final against Grayslake Central we approached it as if the score was 0-0. We won that 6-0.”
The return of senior twins McKenzie and Megan Runyan after a year off to play club soccer has boosted the Corsairs. Sophomore midfielder Angela Salvi leads the team in scoring with 22 goals, but McKenzie Runyan has been the main playmaker with 16 goals and 13 assists. Megan Runyan, a defender, has five goals and six assists.
Another senior, midfielder Jennifer Doyle, has eight goals and four assists while midfielders Kayla Handel and Erin Johnston have combined for 19 assists.
Lemont (18-4-3) is in the semifinals for the fourth time since 2009 but the Indians have yet to win a title, taking second in 2009, third in 2011 and fourth in 2013.
They have four players with at least 10 goals, led by senior forward Aleksandra Mihailovic’s 27.
The other 2A semifinal pits Notre Dame (Peoria, 18-4-4) against Glenwood (17-4-3) at 11 a.m. Those two teams tied 0-0 on April 11.
Glenwood is making its fourth-consecutive finals appearance and eighth since 2001. The Titans won the 2013 state title and were third last spring.
Notre Dame (Peoria) is in the semifinals for just the second time. The Irish were fourth in 2003.