Girls water polo: Fremd bounces back from 1st loss, beats Schaumburg
After falling behind 3-0 in the first three minutes to York on Tuesday and suffering its first loss in 13 decisions, Fremd girls water polo coach Theresa Knowles made the goal very clear for Wednesday's Mid-Suburban West game at Schaumburg.
"Our coach made sure to tell us we have to start every game full-on so we had to make sure we put everything we had into the first couple of minutes," said junior standout Cat Gaido, who scored 5 goals (her season-high is nine vs Vernon Hills) to boost her 2025 total to 49 along with 15 assists. "We wanted to make sure to pass when needed and to shoot when we needed."
The Vikings (11-1-2, 4-0) executed those elements perfectly early and proceeded on to a 13-5 triumph.
They exploded for four goals, getting a pair from Gaido and one apiece from sophomore Addison Newby and senior Reese Winegard (28th of the season), who took a long pass from goalie Molly Boldt and fired home a 15-footer from the corner for a 4-0 advantage with five minutes left in the opening quarter.
Newby took a pass from Aubrey Schinkel and drilled home a 12-footer from out front of the net for the goal that made it 2-0 just 45 seconds into the contest.
"We took the loss (10-6 to York) and we learned a lot from it," Newby said. "We came out very strong. We learned from our mistakes on Tuesday and we capitalized on that. We are going to move forward from there. Schaumburg was a great team."
The Saxons (10-5, 4-1) lost for only the fifth time in 15 games.
Trailing 12-0, the Saxons scored their first goal when sophomore Brienne Freil lofted a 10-foot shot from the middle over the head of the goalie with 1:08 left in the third period
Senior Jalia Kacsh then scored three straight goals in a span of three minutes, the last on a beautiful backhanded shot from 15 feet that made it 13-4 with 1:25 left in the match.
Schaumburg sophomore Kamila Oryl capped the scoring with a 20-foot shot that made it 13-5 with 22 seconds left.
"It was a little too late but Fremd is a phenomenal team and they put up a great game," said Saxons coach Stephanie McClure, who served as Mundelein's goalie/two-meter defender when it won back-to- back girls water polo state crowns.
"Jalia and our girls never quit, that's a big time motto of our team. We always play like it's 0-0 and Jalia is a phenomenal player. It's been a pleasure coaching her for three years."
Kacsh, who has more than 70 goals this spring and was the Saxons' scoring leader last spring, is committed to play the sport at Division I Siena College in New York.
"The start of the game was a little rough but we were able to come back," Kacsh said. "I'm proud of my team for that. We've really grown a lot this season and everyone loves each other on the team. At the end we really came together. We really didn't look at the score. We put that aside and just finished strong as a team."
Kate Rothmeyer added 3 goals for Fremd while Klaudia Malski, Schinkel and Sarah Fletcher (off a Winegar 25-foot cross-water assist) each had one. Lauren Bennett also had an assist in the Vikes' ninth win in 10 games.
"We started out really slow Tuesday (to York) but ended on a really good note so we just wanted to just carry that over to this game," said Knowles, whose goalkeeper (Boldt) made 8 saves, including a couple from point-blank range. "Molly is an athlete, that's for sure."