McAuley Water Polo Takes 3rd in State

They just kept swimming.

The Mother McAuley varsity water polo team grabbed third place in the IHSA state finals Saturday beating the Mundelein Mustangs 11-9. The Mighty Macs ended the season with an overall record of 29-5, Mundelein finished with a 27-8 record.

The Macs, coming off an 8-7 loss against St. Ignatius earlier Saturday, never fell behind. Kristen Kleist scored the first goal of the game halfway through the first quarter, but Allie Boothe responded with Mundelein’s first point of the game about a minute later.

Kleist and Boothe were both top scorers, with 5 and 6 goals, respectively. Clare Bryar put in three shots for the Macs. Both teams presented strong defenses throughout the game, which had several turnovers and ejections on both sides.

At the end of the third quarter, it didn’t look promising for Mundelein as they trailed McAuley. Despite a late rally, they couldn’t catch up to the Macs.  Going into state, McAuley was the top-ranked team by illpolo.com and Mundelein was ranked fourth.

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As the final buzzer sounded, there seemed to be no hard feelings between the teams or supporters. Though Stevenson High School’s aquatic center had been filled with cries of shock at some of the officials’ calls and shouts of triumph after each successful steal or shot, there were only cheers and applause for each team upon accepting their trophies.

The Mustangs even pushed their coach, Drew Schneider, and team manager into the pool in celebration.

For McAuley, it was many of the girls’ third appearance at state; the Macs took fourth place in 2011 and lost in the quarterfinals in 2012.

This year, “it was an amazing season,” coach Vanessa Carroll said. The Macs won the Metro Catholic Aquatic Championship for the first time in the school’s history, defeating St. Ignatius 12-7.

This marked the last game for eight McAuley seniors, who made up the core of the 17-member team.

“It will be hard to lose them,” Carroll said. “The younger girls really look up to each of them.”

Two seniors will continue playing in college: Victoria Arciniega at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania, and goalie Sarah Abbott at Siena College in New York.

“It’s really sad, but we ended our season on a positive note. These past four years we all worked together really well....We have come a long way since the beginning of the season,” said Arciniega, who has played on the team all four years. “We aren’t just a team, we’re a family.”

St. Ignatius beat Lincoln-Way Central 12-9 to take the championship.