The last couple of games have been tough ones for the Girls Water Polo team. 

“We were coming off a really, really rough stretch of playing a lot of really, really tough competition and just struggling to find our identity,” says Head Coach Andy Miner. 

After a 6-2 loss against Rockford (MI) last weekend and a narrow 6-4 loss against Maine West on Monday, Senior Night seemed destined to be just what the Wildkits needed to turn things around. And when an early first-quarter goal from junior Evey Harrell broke things open, it became clear the game would live up to the team’s hopes. From that point forward, Evanston took control and refused to let it go. By the time the final whistle blew, the Kits had accumulated a whopping 13 goals. Loyola? Zero. In fact, it was junior goalie Nina Kaiser’s first career shutout.

“It was really exciting to win, and especially to have it be a shutout,” says senior team member Molly Lemmon. “Senior Night is always so special and it felt really great to spend mine [with the team] and have it be such a fun game.”

Lemmon, a Macalester commit, was responsible for three of E-Town’s goals Thursday night, scoring in the first quarter on a penalty shot, and twice again in the fourth. And what’s more, thanks to a late-game goal from Sofia Shewfelt, both of Evanston’s varsity seniors scored goals on Senior Night.

Even with these successes, however, Miner insists the girls still have much to improve on. 

“We still have so much to work on,” says Miner. “It’s great to see the seniors both get goals tonight, Nina got her first career shutout, so a lot of really awesome positives to take away, but the work is nowhere near done.”

Evanston will find out if it can keep the wins coming this Saturday, April 24, at Lyons Township.