Fenwick High School boys water polo rarely loses. The Friars’ 18-game winning streak was snapped by Parkway South at the De Smet Tournament in St. Louis over the weekend.
After a six-hour drive to the tourney, the Friars started sluggishly in their opener. Trailing by three goals late in the game, the Friars rallied to tie the score at 7-7 before Parkway South scored the winning goal with about 30 seconds left in the fourth period.
“While it’s never fun to lose, there’s nothing wrong with losing in April,” Fenwick coach Kyle Perry said. “The goal is to be winning in May. Hopefully, our team will learn from this and keep moving forward.”
The Friars (22-1, 8-0 MCAC) certainly responded well in the remainder of their games in St. Louis, reeling off impressive victories against Missouri schools Kirkwood, St. Louis University High, De Smet and Parkway West by a combined score of 40-13.
Senior Payton Comstock earned MVP tourney honors.
“For April, we’re playing about where we want to be,” Perry said. “We were missing some key players throughout the weekend. It’ll be nice to have everybody back in the pool together soon.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done in the last month of our season,” Perry added. “I thought that after our loss in St. Louis, we rebounded nicely. This is what we were hoping for, but the boys have to know that we’re nearing the end of opportunities like this. We have a few more high-level games left in the coming weeks before we get to the win or go home MCAC tournament and then the IHSA playoffs.”
The Friars are loaded with talented players this season, including Comstock, Nate Fisher, Dan Lynch, Dan Bajda, Alex Figus and goalie Manny Ruiz.
Fenwick will celebrate “Senior Night” when they host OPRF on Thursday, April 25 at 7 p.m.
OPRF badminton
The Huskies remained red hot with an 8-7 win over Lyons Township on April 10. OPRF (9-0, 3-0 West Suburban Silver) has also earned notable victories over Riverside-Brookfield, York and Downers Grove South, along with winning the Hersey and Willowbrook invites.
“We have four matches this week and then we end up with the Conant Invite on Saturday [April 20],” OPRF coach Paul Wright said. “We are making a strong run at conference and the Huskies are poised to go downstate.”
OPRF boys volleyball
Fresh off last season’s state quarterfinals appearance, OPRF looks like a state contender again this spring. The Huskies’ top highlight of the season occured at the Warren Invite. The Huskies edged defending state champion Lincoln-Way East 25-19, 26-24 in the semifinals and Deerfield in the championship game 25-13, 25-15. Sean Califf and Mike Perla earned all-tourney recognition.
Off to a promising 4-2 start this season, the Huskies can score with the best of them. In six games, OPRF has 86 goals. Senior Liz Conmy leads the high-powered Huskies with 32 goals in five games.
“Liz is a threat both defensively and offensively,” OPRF coach James Borja said. “All the teams we play key on her, but she’s still able to be extremely effective. Since she is such a threat, she makes everyone around her better.”
The Huskies travel to Elmhurst to take on conference opponent York on Wednesday, April 17. Start time is 7 p.m.
Fenwick girls soccer
The Friars improved to 6-4 with a 7-0 win over Zion-Benton and a 2-1 win on penalty kicks against DeKalb.
Against Zion-Benton, forwards Alessia Mollo and Juliana Giuffre scored two goals apiece to power the Friars’ attack. Molly McCann, Anna Bjorson and Margaret McFadeen each contributed a goal. Hensley Akers, Anna Dray and Erin Frumkin had two assists apiece, while Mary Heneghan and Audrey Hinrichs combined for the shutout.
Fenwick hosts Proviso West on Thursday, April 26. The nonconference match starts at 5:15 at the Dominican Priory.
OPRF boys tennis
The Huskies (2-1, 2-0 West Suburban Silver) finished fifth at the Prospect Invite on April 13. Mark Trinka and Sam Richards are the team’s top two singles players, while Aiden Klass and Ben Pickering make up the top doubles team.
The pairs of Sam Heilenbach and Neil Fararjo, High Lipic and Jacob Sklar, and Zach Vergotine and Gordon Anderson are the Huskies’ other doubles teams.
Fenwick girls water polo
Senior Harper Daniels scored five goals as the host Friars doubled up Loyola Academy 16-8 on April 15. Fenwick will compete in the Stevenson Invite this weekend (April 19-20). Matches start at noon on Friday.
OPRF girls water polo
Mary Vanek’s four goals and Bennett Gloor’s two goals weren’t enough as the Huskies lost to Lyons Township 13-7 on April 16. Nell Behr and Evelyn Kelley added a goal each, while goalie Sydney Mosher finished with 11 saves against the Lions.
