Naperville North water polo teams win sectional championships as coach Kelly Reif builds something special

Coach Kelly Reif refuses to use the rebuild word after five starters graduate

Naperville North boys and girls water polo teams won sectional championships on Saturday as head coach Kelly Reif led the Huskies to five straight sectional crowns.

The boys team defeated Hinsdale Central 12-6 to claim the title in Saturday morning's sectional final at Hinsdale Central.

The girls team also advanced after knocking off Naperville Central 9-2 in Saturday's second match.

Reif does not use the rebuild word

Coach Kelly Reif has built something special at Naperville North and she was not about to use the phrase rebuild even after five of seven starters graduated from last year's state championship squad.

She believed in this year's group of Huskies and now she has claimed five straight sectional crowns and heads into Tuesday's Hinsdale Central supersectional round against Brother Rice looking for a shot at defending Naperville North's state title.

This is the goal we've been working on all season. Kelly Reif said after celebrating in the Hinsdale Central pool with the sectional championship plaque and the rest of the program's coaches and players.

Obviously last year coming off a state championship but graduating almost everyone. I basically have three kids that got wet last year that we had in the water here. We graduated everyone including our goalie and so there was a lot of getting the kids to believe in themselves. Reif said.

Boys team dominates with crisp offense and defensive pressure

Caden Tsao who did start on last year's boys championship squad tallied three of his six goals as the Huskies blitzed the Red Devils with a dominant 6-1 first quarter.

We came out hard and fast. That was nice. JD Sandford said after suffering a broken nose earlier this year and reinjuring his nose on Saturday but not before he had several takeaways and kept the Hinsdale Central attack at bay.

It's insane how much our team has grown since the start of the season. Sandford said.

With Tsao's three scores and two more from Landon Fennema the Huskies made a statement early on.

We came out and we just trusted our skills. Caden Tsao said who scored the game's first goal less than one minute in off a pass from Axel Sujewicz.

The other returning starter for the Huskies is John Riordan who scored three goals and is ready for another trophy chase.

We knew they were going to be more physical than us. That's just a thing Hinsdale Central always had. They always had size. We had to beat them by our brains beat them technically so we knew that we were going to have to be quick on our drives and quick with help defense. Huge shoutout to JD Sandford. He's one of the biggest players on our team and being a body in there that we can use. Riordan said.

Girls team survives early deficit to advance

The Huskies fell behind 1-0 but led 4-1 after one quarter and 5-2 at the half on their way to advancing to Tuesday's supersectional under first-year head coach Andy Bax.

We've been talking about survive and advance one game at a time. Don't look ahead. Take care of things first. Andy Bax said whose team knocked off Metea Valley 16-1 in Friday's semis.

Junior Ava Podkasik who leads the team with 50 goals scored twice in the first quarter on her way to three tallies on Saturday.

We knew it was going to be a hard game. Central's a great team and we knew they were going to give it their all obviously because it's win or go home. I feel like we just had really good ball movement and we adjusted with the way they were playing. Podkasik said.

Cate Czochara and Molly Depies each scored twice for Naperville North and goalie Rugi Stackevicious turned in another strong effort.

Teams head to supersectionals

The boys team will face Brother Rice on Tuesday in the Hinsdale Central supersectional round looking for a shot at defending Naperville North's state title.

The girls team will face Lincoln-Way East on Tuesday in the supersectional matchup.

Next up is Tuesday's supersectional matchup with Lincoln-Way East. Andy Bax said whose team is the second seed in the state.