Season preview: DuPage Valley Conference
By Matt Le Cren
Hannah Martin is under no illusion.
She knows the task ahead will be difficult.
How does she know this? Because her foes are perhaps even more familiar than her friends, who are, in many cases, one and the same.
Martin, Naperville North’s supremely athletic junior forward, was asked about the Huskies’ prospects for defending their DuPage Valley Conference championship, a crown they shared with Neuqua Valley, in this most unique of seasons.
“Honestly, I think it’s going to be just as hard as the last,” Martin said. “Everyone wants to win DVC, obviously, and there’s a lot of good talent in the DVC even with the talent that left last year.”
Graduation claimed a tremendous amount of talent from area DVC squads, most notably at Naperville North, which said goodbye to eight starters, most of whom are now playing Division I soccer. But the league also said goodbye to four teams last spring. That left five schools that are within a few miles of each other. They are also the five strongest programs from the larger, nine-team loop.
So Naperville North, Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley, Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley, all proud programs with a combined seven state titles and an additional five runner-up finishes, while compete in a four-game sprint for DVC dominance.
The 2019 campaign will be the only one contested entirely among Naperville-area schools before DeKalb joins as the sixth member of the league for the 2019-2020 school year.
Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley said that any of the five teams are capable of winning the league, and he gets no argument. Naperville North coach Steve Goletz, who was the assistant coach on the Huskies’ boys team that went 26-0 and won its third-consecutive state title last fall, saw how tight things were during the boys season, when the Huskies actually faced elimination in their final DVC game before edging Metea for the league crown.
“I think it puts the pressure on you, not have to slip up,’ Goletz said. “If you lose one it becomes tough. You instantly need help.
“The boys won a state championship and against Neuqua it was 1-0 game. I think that’s indicative, even more so on the girls side. When you look at Waubonsie, Central, Metea and Neuqua, somebody is in the mix to win a state championship almost every single year out of that group.”
The players, of course, are fully aware of it. Martin, who had a team-high 16 goals last season in helping the Huskies to third place in the state, is the top returning scorer among DVC players and knows what lies ahead.
“Every game is a battle,” Martin said. “So we’re going to have to go out there and give it our best effort every time and hopefully come out on top.”
Martin, who is getting interest from major Division I programs, is one of the few regular starters back for the Huskies, though she is joined by a pair of Division I commits in Northwestern-bound senior defender Reilly Riggs and Wisconsin commit Maddie Schlecht, a senior midfielder who joins North from club.
The Huskies will have a target on their backs regardless of who they trot out on the field. So does that provide motivation or an added level of stress?
“I feel like it’s both,” Martin said. “It’s obviously great to be the team that everyone wants to beat. But at the same time it makes us work harder and want to be better, because we know everyone is coming for us.
“(It was) the same with the boys, who won three state championships. Everyone just wants to beat you, which I kind of like because everyone comes in and gives you their best shot. So you know what to expect from them in the DVC season and if we play them again in the playoffs, because we know how they play.”
Regardless of who is new and who’s not, the players all know each other from club soccer, where they are teammates or play against one another. When they meet on the high school level, it’s almost like a big family reunion.
“It’s crazy,” Martin said. “We grew up with these kids.
“All these years I’ve played against all the kids who played club soccer, who played in all the Naperville schools and everyone is so competitive. Most of them want to play in college.
“Everyone is just so talented around here.”
Indeed, all five DVC programs seem to produce Division I players as often as Starbucks baristas make lattes. The thing that makes it unique is that many of the girls are friends with one another.
“It’s so nice, especially all the Naperville schools,” Martin said. “When we see kids from our club team, it’s super fun to play against them, because we’re so used to playing with them.”
So who is the favorite? It’s hard to tell and there may not be one.
Naperville North has been the dominant team the past three seasons, with supersectional appearances in 2016 and 2017 and a trip to the state semifinals in 2018.
But Neuqua Valley has the most returning top-line talent, Naperville Central returns 17 players with varsity experience and Metea Valley has won five-consecutive regional titles and made four sectional final appearances. And don’t forget about Waubonsie Valley, which won three state titles between 2007 and 2010 and was a state semifinalist as recently as five years ago.
The Warriors went 13-5-3 and lost to Naperville Central in overtime in the regional finals last year and graduated some long-time stalwarts. But they bring back junior midfielder Grace Setter, who tied for the team scoring lead with 13 goals, as well as senior defender Jessica Wallace. Junior forward Megan Burling and sophomore defender Alexa Quaranta, who already is committed to Western Illinois, provide even more star power.
The biggest star power at Neuqua Valley will be on the bench next to head coach Joe Moreau. Former Neuqua and UCLA star Zoey Goralski, who has been invited to the Chicago Red Stars’ preseason training camp, is the new assistant coach.
“How many teams can say their assistant coach is better than everyone on their team?” Moreau said. “The poor defenders have to defend Zoey.”
Of course, those practice sessions will pay dividends in the matches and the Wildcats, who lost to Naperville North in the sectional final last year, have plenty of players primed to take advantage of practicing with Goralski.
In the midfield, senior Danielle Hopkins (Missouri S&T) and sophomore Katelyn Nardulli (Xavier) have already committed, as have senior defenders Erin McCarthy (Lipscomb) and Reaghan Young (Webster), junior forward Leah Senese (Wisconsin-La Crosse) and sophomore goalkeeper Tara Tesmond (Indiana State).
That list doesn’t include two other returning standouts in senior forward Alison Dovalovsky and senior Shannon Tagler, an all-DVC defender who might be moved up-top. Two newcomers to watch are junior midfielder Piper Biziorek, whom Moreau said is capable of playing every position except goalie, and freshman forward Kristen Hopkins, Danielle’s sister.
“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” Moreau said.
That surprise might not come until later as Neuqua faces three of Top Drawer Soccer’s top 10 teams in Illinois in the first two weeks of the season. Moreau beefed up an already loaded schedule by adding Class 3A state semifinalist Andrew, two-time defending sectional champion Downers Grove North, Class AA third place finisher Lemont and Class A power Columbia.
As for the DVC race, Moreau said it will be up for grabs until the end, which is literally true in his team’s case -- the Wildcats play three of their four league matches in the final week.
“Truly, the champion could have two losses,” Moreau said. “I don’t know if it’s possible to have a five-way tie but any given day anyone could beat each other, that’s for sure.”
Naperville Central coach Ed Watson is sure of only one thing; he has the most returning players he has ever had. The Redhawks bring back 17 players, though Loyola-bound defender Abbey Hillmann is the only Division I commit.
“We should have experience on our side,” Watson said. “(Hillmann) is a lockdown defensive player and has some above-average offensive skills as well.
“She’s going to transition into the collegiate game and once she gets to Loyola she is going to turn some heads. We could ask her to play elsewhere, but she is a collegiate-level outside back so that is where she’s going to play for us.”
Naperville Central’s defense, led by Hillmann and fellow seniors Caroline Giannone and Grace Anderson, will again be the team’s strength. Anderson is returning from ACL surgery, as is senior goalkeeper Amber Hunter, who was injured in the second game of the season last year.
“(Hunter) is doing amazing things,” Watson said. “If you had told me this is a kid who tore her ACL I’d be hard to convince, because she looks so strong.
“She could have played collegiately but opted to go the academic route. I think she’s going to have a good year.”
As should the Redhawks, though their age-old question of how many goals they will score and who will score them remains. Senior forward Caroline Reedy, a four-year varsity player, senior midfielder Maddie Mills, now in her third year, and sophomore midfielder Sullivan Schubel are likely the top scoring threats.
“We’re going to be a probably better version of Naperville Central, and we’re going to defend better than we have the last few years,” Watson said. “We might possess it better in the end, but I still don’t know where we’re going to get any goals.
“We’re going to have to convert on set pieces. I’d rather us be more creative and look dangerous through the run of play, but when it comes down to it we’re going to have to create corner kicks, and we will have some girls who are pretty good in the air. So when we do have corners we’re going to be dangerous.”
As for the DVC race, Watson said every team is dangerous
“I have no idea how it’s going to turn out,” Watson said. “I don’t think any of the games are going to be easy, that’s for sure.
“It’s not like you can look at the schedule and go, “Gosh, thank God we’ve got them this week.’ There are no easy outs.
“You could be beaten by all four of your conference teams and still be one of the better teams in the area.”
Indeed, while everyone wants to have DVC bragging rights, in the end it might not mean much when playoff time rolls around. All of the Naperville schools have historically been put in the same sectional, meaning they may get a second chance to knock one another off.
“We say all the time, your conference champion could get upset in the sectional semifinal or regional final if the pairings end up bad with a DVC school,” Goletz said. “I think the big thing for us is our schedule with the DVC and going to playing Barrington and New Trier and St. Charles East and Fremd. There’s nothing that’s going to surprise us in terms of what’s out there.
“I think we’re going to take some lumps at times this year, and that’s OK. I want our kids to be able to see what it takes to beat the best. That formula has worked for us the last couple of years, and hopefully our kids can embrace that.
“The DVC just ramps up the importance of those games even more because the conference championship, even though it’s a five-team conference, means so much. From top to bottom in the DVC, for girls soccer, I’d put that up against anybody in the state.”
By Matt Le Cren
Hannah Martin is under no illusion.
She knows the task ahead will be difficult.
How does she know this? Because her foes are perhaps even more familiar than her friends, who are, in many cases, one and the same.
Martin, Naperville North’s supremely athletic junior forward, was asked about the Huskies’ prospects for defending their DuPage Valley Conference championship, a crown they shared with Neuqua Valley, in this most unique of seasons.
“Honestly, I think it’s going to be just as hard as the last,” Martin said. “Everyone wants to win DVC, obviously, and there’s a lot of good talent in the DVC even with the talent that left last year.”
Graduation claimed a tremendous amount of talent from area DVC squads, most notably at Naperville North, which said goodbye to eight starters, most of whom are now playing Division I soccer. But the league also said goodbye to four teams last spring. That left five schools that are within a few miles of each other. They are also the five strongest programs from the larger, nine-team loop.
So Naperville North, Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley, Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley, all proud programs with a combined seven state titles and an additional five runner-up finishes, while compete in a four-game sprint for DVC dominance.
The 2019 campaign will be the only one contested entirely among Naperville-area schools before DeKalb joins as the sixth member of the league for the 2019-2020 school year.
Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley said that any of the five teams are capable of winning the league, and he gets no argument. Naperville North coach Steve Goletz, who was the assistant coach on the Huskies’ boys team that went 26-0 and won its third-consecutive state title last fall, saw how tight things were during the boys season, when the Huskies actually faced elimination in their final DVC game before edging Metea for the league crown.
“I think it puts the pressure on you, not have to slip up,’ Goletz said. “If you lose one it becomes tough. You instantly need help.
“The boys won a state championship and against Neuqua it was 1-0 game. I think that’s indicative, even more so on the girls side. When you look at Waubonsie, Central, Metea and Neuqua, somebody is in the mix to win a state championship almost every single year out of that group.”
The players, of course, are fully aware of it. Martin, who had a team-high 16 goals last season in helping the Huskies to third place in the state, is the top returning scorer among DVC players and knows what lies ahead.
“Every game is a battle,” Martin said. “So we’re going to have to go out there and give it our best effort every time and hopefully come out on top.”
Martin, who is getting interest from major Division I programs, is one of the few regular starters back for the Huskies, though she is joined by a pair of Division I commits in Northwestern-bound senior defender Reilly Riggs and Wisconsin commit Maddie Schlecht, a senior midfielder who joins North from club.
The Huskies will have a target on their backs regardless of who they trot out on the field. So does that provide motivation or an added level of stress?
“I feel like it’s both,” Martin said. “It’s obviously great to be the team that everyone wants to beat. But at the same time it makes us work harder and want to be better, because we know everyone is coming for us.
“(It was) the same with the boys, who won three state championships. Everyone just wants to beat you, which I kind of like because everyone comes in and gives you their best shot. So you know what to expect from them in the DVC season and if we play them again in the playoffs, because we know how they play.”
Regardless of who is new and who’s not, the players all know each other from club soccer, where they are teammates or play against one another. When they meet on the high school level, it’s almost like a big family reunion.
“It’s crazy,” Martin said. “We grew up with these kids.
“All these years I’ve played against all the kids who played club soccer, who played in all the Naperville schools and everyone is so competitive. Most of them want to play in college.
“Everyone is just so talented around here.”
Indeed, all five DVC programs seem to produce Division I players as often as Starbucks baristas make lattes. The thing that makes it unique is that many of the girls are friends with one another.
“It’s so nice, especially all the Naperville schools,” Martin said. “When we see kids from our club team, it’s super fun to play against them, because we’re so used to playing with them.”
So who is the favorite? It’s hard to tell and there may not be one.
Naperville North has been the dominant team the past three seasons, with supersectional appearances in 2016 and 2017 and a trip to the state semifinals in 2018.
But Neuqua Valley has the most returning top-line talent, Naperville Central returns 17 players with varsity experience and Metea Valley has won five-consecutive regional titles and made four sectional final appearances. And don’t forget about Waubonsie Valley, which won three state titles between 2007 and 2010 and was a state semifinalist as recently as five years ago.
The Warriors went 13-5-3 and lost to Naperville Central in overtime in the regional finals last year and graduated some long-time stalwarts. But they bring back junior midfielder Grace Setter, who tied for the team scoring lead with 13 goals, as well as senior defender Jessica Wallace. Junior forward Megan Burling and sophomore defender Alexa Quaranta, who already is committed to Western Illinois, provide even more star power.
The biggest star power at Neuqua Valley will be on the bench next to head coach Joe Moreau. Former Neuqua and UCLA star Zoey Goralski, who has been invited to the Chicago Red Stars’ preseason training camp, is the new assistant coach.
“How many teams can say their assistant coach is better than everyone on their team?” Moreau said. “The poor defenders have to defend Zoey.”
Of course, those practice sessions will pay dividends in the matches and the Wildcats, who lost to Naperville North in the sectional final last year, have plenty of players primed to take advantage of practicing with Goralski.
In the midfield, senior Danielle Hopkins (Missouri S&T) and sophomore Katelyn Nardulli (Xavier) have already committed, as have senior defenders Erin McCarthy (Lipscomb) and Reaghan Young (Webster), junior forward Leah Senese (Wisconsin-La Crosse) and sophomore goalkeeper Tara Tesmond (Indiana State).
That list doesn’t include two other returning standouts in senior forward Alison Dovalovsky and senior Shannon Tagler, an all-DVC defender who might be moved up-top. Two newcomers to watch are junior midfielder Piper Biziorek, whom Moreau said is capable of playing every position except goalie, and freshman forward Kristen Hopkins, Danielle’s sister.
“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” Moreau said.
That surprise might not come until later as Neuqua faces three of Top Drawer Soccer’s top 10 teams in Illinois in the first two weeks of the season. Moreau beefed up an already loaded schedule by adding Class 3A state semifinalist Andrew, two-time defending sectional champion Downers Grove North, Class AA third place finisher Lemont and Class A power Columbia.
As for the DVC race, Moreau said it will be up for grabs until the end, which is literally true in his team’s case -- the Wildcats play three of their four league matches in the final week.
“Truly, the champion could have two losses,” Moreau said. “I don’t know if it’s possible to have a five-way tie but any given day anyone could beat each other, that’s for sure.”
Naperville Central coach Ed Watson is sure of only one thing; he has the most returning players he has ever had. The Redhawks bring back 17 players, though Loyola-bound defender Abbey Hillmann is the only Division I commit.
“We should have experience on our side,” Watson said. “(Hillmann) is a lockdown defensive player and has some above-average offensive skills as well.
“She’s going to transition into the collegiate game and once she gets to Loyola she is going to turn some heads. We could ask her to play elsewhere, but she is a collegiate-level outside back so that is where she’s going to play for us.”
Naperville Central’s defense, led by Hillmann and fellow seniors Caroline Giannone and Grace Anderson, will again be the team’s strength. Anderson is returning from ACL surgery, as is senior goalkeeper Amber Hunter, who was injured in the second game of the season last year.
“(Hunter) is doing amazing things,” Watson said. “If you had told me this is a kid who tore her ACL I’d be hard to convince, because she looks so strong.
“She could have played collegiately but opted to go the academic route. I think she’s going to have a good year.”
As should the Redhawks, though their age-old question of how many goals they will score and who will score them remains. Senior forward Caroline Reedy, a four-year varsity player, senior midfielder Maddie Mills, now in her third year, and sophomore midfielder Sullivan Schubel are likely the top scoring threats.
“We’re going to be a probably better version of Naperville Central, and we’re going to defend better than we have the last few years,” Watson said. “We might possess it better in the end, but I still don’t know where we’re going to get any goals.
“We’re going to have to convert on set pieces. I’d rather us be more creative and look dangerous through the run of play, but when it comes down to it we’re going to have to create corner kicks, and we will have some girls who are pretty good in the air. So when we do have corners we’re going to be dangerous.”
As for the DVC race, Watson said every team is dangerous
“I have no idea how it’s going to turn out,” Watson said. “I don’t think any of the games are going to be easy, that’s for sure.
“It’s not like you can look at the schedule and go, “Gosh, thank God we’ve got them this week.’ There are no easy outs.
“You could be beaten by all four of your conference teams and still be one of the better teams in the area.”
Indeed, while everyone wants to have DVC bragging rights, in the end it might not mean much when playoff time rolls around. All of the Naperville schools have historically been put in the same sectional, meaning they may get a second chance to knock one another off.
“We say all the time, your conference champion could get upset in the sectional semifinal or regional final if the pairings end up bad with a DVC school,” Goletz said. “I think the big thing for us is our schedule with the DVC and going to playing Barrington and New Trier and St. Charles East and Fremd. There’s nothing that’s going to surprise us in terms of what’s out there.
“I think we’re going to take some lumps at times this year, and that’s OK. I want our kids to be able to see what it takes to beat the best. That formula has worked for us the last couple of years, and hopefully our kids can embrace that.
“The DVC just ramps up the importance of those games even more because the conference championship, even though it’s a five-team conference, means so much. From top to bottom in the DVC, for girls soccer, I’d put that up against anybody in the state.”