By Michael Wojtychiw
When the Jones/Payton and Lane girls water polo teams faced off against each other a couple of weeks ago, the game, as most probably expected, was tight until the end and came down to the last possession.
The two, for the majority of the season, had been the top two teams in the Chicago Public League, with Young just behind them. Lane, in fact, made a dramatic comeback to defeat the Dolphins in the semifinals of the tournament the night before, giving it the opportunity to defend its city title and go for a three-peat at the UIC Natatorium.
However, much like they did in the regular season, the Greagles took it to the Champions and came away victories, winning their first city title since 2018, defeating Lane 13-10.
“This is the best team we’ve ever had,” Jones/Payton junior Nita Thaci said. “We knew this was the year we would bring it home.”
Unlike their previous matchup, it was Lane that got on the scoreboard first, with Ashley Roman scoring on her team’s first possession of the game.
Jones’ Mya Garcia tied it two possessions later before Meghan Mansfeld gave the Champions a 2-1 lead. A Jones goal by Stephanie Hu tied it at 2 before Lane’s Martha Palmentera-Reid and Susan Palmentera-Reid scoring to give the Champions a 4-2 lead after one period. Susan’s goal came with just five second remaining in the period.
But that’s when the Greagles defense got tight.
Jones/Payton has seen its defense step up time after time and the second and third periods of the city title game was no exception.
Jones/Payton forced 12 Lane turnovers over the two quarters and goalie Lily Gunn made two saves, while altering a handful of others as the defense, which allowed four goals in the first quarter, combined to allow four over the middle two quarters.
“Our main thing as a team is that you’re not going to win the game, just on offense alone, you really have to have a strong defense,” the Greagles’ Morgan Butney said. “And that’s when the game starts. And again, we I think we can attest all that to our culture.”
“It was more a mentality of understanding their strengths and being a lot more discipline.” Jones/Payton coach Mac Varilla said. “There’s little technical things. So we try to fix in the last week or two. But it’s easier said than done. But they definitely showed the resilience and the two big words like composure and concentration. It was just being able to not foul their sharpshooter as much as possible. And then our goalie just staying with it, really discouraging their shots.”
While the defense was doing its work, the offense was doing all it could to get the squad back into the game. Down 6-4 at the half, the Greagles outscored the Champions 5-2 in the third period to take the lead going into the final period.
Morgan Butney scored two goals in the run, while teammates Garcia, Thaci and Brenna Perrine all added one.
“We’ve had bigger comebacks this year, like in the Lyons tournament where we were down by five goals and won by four,” Butney said. “Our coach really instilled in us to just dig deep, and cool, calm, collected composure. And I honestly think that’s what won us a game.”
Martha Palmetera-Reid tied the game at 9 with 6:28 remaining before the teams would trade goals with Lane tying it at 10 again on a Martha Palmetera-Reid goal with 4:58 remaining.
Thaci put the game away, however, scoring with 4:43 remaining to give the Greagles an 11-10 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Garcia would round out the scoring with two goals in the last minute.
“It’s truly amazing,” she said. “But I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. If they weren’t there, we wouldn’t have been able to do this.”
Both teams now prepare for the state playoffs, where they have a chance to meet for the third time this season. Jones/Payton is the top seed in the St. Ignatius sectional, while the Champions are seeded second.
