New Trier Water Polo: Trevians Fall Twice to Loyola in Sectional Championships

New Trier water polo coach Matt Wendt was so excited about the Trevians’ overtime victory against Evanston on Friday night he could hardly sleep.

Unfortunately the same might have been said about his team. Loyola jumped out to a 6-0 lead on New Trier in the first eight minutes of the game and cruised to an 11-7 win in the IHSA Northbrook Sectional championship game. New Trier’s boys team fell to Loyola, 16-11, in their sectional championship game that followed the girls matchup at Glenbrook North.

“Hangover’s a good word. We came out a little flat and Loyola came in fired up,” Wendt said. “Loyola looked so disciplined; they didn’t turn the ball over much and never gave us an inch on defense.”

“I came in today and I did feel slower and I think that’s because we worked so hard yesterday,” Erika Nothnagel said.

New Trier had some chances early on, but couldn’t generate much of a rhythm on the offensive end. Loyola’s Kristina Alexander dove to her right to stop Nothnagel’s five-meter shot only a minute in. Loyola responded with two more goals – the second off a New Trier turnover – and Wendt called a quick timeout.

The Trevians failed to capitalize on a man advantage midway through the first quarter and Loyola again took advantage with a transition goal.

“We want to make the girls work for their passes and work for their shots,” Loyola coach Rich Schici said. “New Trier had a couple of bad passes, turnovers for us that resulted in counter attack goals.”

New Trier got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter when Nothnagel fired a perimeter shot from a tough angle. But they still trailed at halftime, 8-2.

Wendt pressed his squad to be more aggressive in the second half, but Loyola’s defense was too tough. Goalie Alexandra Saclarides had some big saves in the third quarter to keep the Trevians in it.

“She had a great tournament,” Wendt said. “She blocked well, she had great outlet passes. She’s tough.”

New Trier scored three goals in the final 80 seconds to conclude the scoring.

Nothnagel paced New Trier with three goals. Loyola’s Evan Swenson led all scorers with four.

“We can play with Loyola,” Wendt said. “We’re capable of playing better, but it was just Loyola’s day.”

The boys championship game followed much of the same script that played out in the girls title match.

New Trier jumped out to a 2-1 lead after Sam Skinner put in a five-meter shot earl y in the first quarter, but it was all Loyola from there. The Ramblers went on an 8-0 run over the next nine minutes to take a commanding 9-2 lead.

Everything was working for Loyola offensively. The Ramblers shot well from the perimeter and were able to feed the ball into the middle for leading scorer Charlie Dowdle.

“We’ve been working on [ball movement] since the end of Catholic League, moving the ball a lot faster, not letting the ball hit the water, making good passes,” Dowdle said.

On the defensive end, Loyola was able to contain New Trier throughout much of the game.

“Our perimeter shooting was so awful,” New Trier coach David Goodspeed said. “We made the goalie look like a champion. That goalie really turned the tide more than anything.”

In the second half, Loyola sat back to defend New Trier’s counter attacks and were able to keep a comfortable cushion. New Trier never cut the deficit under six before a couple of garbage-time scores made the final margin five goals.

“We tried to make a run in the second half and had our chances, but couldn’t put it away,” Goodspeed said.

Nate Urban and Jordan Palmer each had three goals for New Trier. Loyola was led by Dowdle, who finished with six goals.

The Trevians had some signature wins during the season, but Goodspeed wasn’t entirely satisfied with his team’s development.

“A lot of these kids played varsity last year and we really thought we would get better as the season went along and we kind of stayed about the same,” Goodspeed said. “We never really broke out.”