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player ready...Throughout Friday’s 14-6 loss to the Schaumburg girls water polo team, Maine East junior goalie Annie Turbak made several spectacular saves.
The two most impressive came within seconds of one another and happened with less than one minute remaining in the first half.
First, she stopped a shot by diving to her right, reaching out her right hand near the right corner of the net to knock the ball back into play. The Saxons recovered the rebound and took another shot from about one foot away, but Turbak punched it out again.
She wasn’t so lucky the third time, and Schaumburg went into half ahead 8-4.
The series showed how good Turbak is and how she can get better.
“It’s difficult to make stops on consecutive shots because you have to keep re-positioning yourself,” said Maine East coach Kara Bosman, who’s in her first season with the Blue Demons. “That comes with a lot of practice, and she’s still a young player.”
Although Turbak is a junior, this is only her second season playing water polo and first on varsity. After playing goalie on the JV team as a freshman, she decided to play softball last spring.
“I wanted to switch it up and do something different,” she said.
Turbak said she made up her mind to play water polo again about two weeks before the season started.
“I kind of waited until the last minute, but I’m glad I did,” she said.
While volleyball is Turbak’s primary sport, Bosman is high on her goalie’s potential as a water polo player. Bosman regularly works with Turbak during practice. Her biggest goal this season is to improve Turbak’s reaction time and instincts. That’s done by “whipping” balls at Turbak, Bosman said. Turbak said Bosman often will substitute tennis balls and ice cubes for water polo balls.
“Those kill me a little bit,” Turbak said about the rapid-fire shooting sessions. “But she’s trying to build up my endurance. It’s a slow process, but I can tell it’s helping me.”
Turbak finished with 16 saves on Friday, a number that pleased Bosman, who said she always likes to see her goalies have more saves than goals allowed. Bosman said she wasn’t thrilled that Schaumburg was able to take so many shots, though. Maine East (3-6) entered the game surrendering 8.6 goals per game.
But Bosman said the Saxons were the first team the Blue Demons played that took long-range shots. Schaumburg’s first two goals came courtesy of long lobs from the perimeter.
“Those are super difficult to block,” Bosman said. “It’s something we haven’t even practiced because we don’t have lobbers on our team.”
Bosman said she looks forward to unlocking Turbak’s potential.
“She’s come a long way in the past month already,” Bosman said. “She’s good at leading her teammates, and she really owns that area of the pool. She goes all out to make stops. She’s really stepping up for us.”
Game notes
* Maine East seniors and first-year starters Manka Arifi and Zainab Naser each scored three goals Friday.
* Blue Demons senior starters Sarah Hua-Pham and Hannah Farley both missed Friday’s game. They were out of town for a club volleyball tournament.
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