Lincoln-Way E. falls victim to late H-F rally

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FLOSSMOOR -- The girls water polo teams from Lincoln-Way East and Homewood-Flossmoor High Schools had split 6-5 decisions this year so it only made sense that they'd have another 6-5 game in Saturday's Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional finals.

It didn't look like that would happen again after the Griffins took a 5-3 lead early in the final quarter but the Vikings scored 3 goals during the final 4:07 to pull out a 6-5 victory to earn them their fifth state appearance in the last 6 years.

As a result, East (26-6) dropped a 1-goal decision to H-F (21-10-1) in the sectional finals for the second year in a row, suffering a 4-3 setback last season.

H-F's Story Pumphrey scored 4 goals, including the game-winner with just 0:26 remaining to deprive the Griffins of their second state trip in the past 3 years.

"We were both really talented teams that were really close so one or two things could make or break the game, and that's what ended up happening," Griffins coach Jennifer Klein said. "We played our hearts out and I'm proud of our kids.

"We finished 26-6, which was the best record that Lincoln-Way East has ever had. We really did great this year and we couldn't have wished for a better season."

East's Alyssa Toland and H-F's Andrea Peterson exchanged goals in the first period and Griffin Rachel Japp (2 goals) and Pumphrey did the same in the first minute of the second quarter.

Senior Japp connected again with 2:07 left in the first half and Taylor Nelson scored on a 2-player advantage with 0:30 left before the break to give the Griffins a 4-2 lead.

"It was a tough game and it ended the same score as our other games," said Japp, who played on the 2006 state team. "We were confident after going up by 2 goals but they pulled ahead at the end. It's tough playing in a pool with the shallow end.

"We had our best overall record and we all played so well together, so it was a really good season. And we all had fun and that's what's most important."

Pumphrey cut the margin to 4-3 with 4:34 left in the third but Kara Nowakowski got a rebound goal off of a miss from Nelson with 6:30 to give East another 2-goal lead.

But the Vikings staged a furious comeback as Michelle Mayer connected with 4:07 remaining and Pumphrey hit from long range to tie things at 5-5 with 2:50 remaining.

After stopping a season-high 18 shots, Griffins senior goalie Morgan Roberts wasn't able to halt Pumphrey's long attempt with 0:26 left that wrapped up the scoring.

"We played our best game and I had my most blocks," said Roberts, who also played on the 2006 squad. "I thought everyone had a great game and we played as well as we could but they came out on top. We feel okay since we gave it all we had.

"Our sophomore year was the first time that we went to state, so we would have liked to have gone back. But we've come a long way the last few years."