Turf wars

Three area powers will settle issue on artificial turf at Libertyville High

Sara Petermann may be only 5 feet, 4 inches tall, but she definitely is a big-time player for Carmel High's girls soccer team.

In fact, the senior forward is a virtual scoring machine as she's led the Corsairs to one of the best seasons in school history.

Petermann has played on the varsity all four years and will have her name etched in the record books for career goals along with the names of Kendell Brown and Christy Zwolski -- the only two who are currently above her.

Brown is the all-time leading scorer with 113 tallies, followed by Zwolski's 84. Petermann now has 80, heading into the Corsairs' match today against Libertyville in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 2A Libertyville Sectional.

"The nice thing about Sara is she is a the rare player who combines natural ability with a tremendous work ethic," said Carmel coach John Halloran. "She is a once-in-a-decade player."

That's high praise coming from a coach who also worked with Brown and Zwolski.

"Sara is definitely of that calibre," said Halloran. "She can do it all on a soccer field. and it's been fun to watch her improve every year."

Petermann played a lot as a freshman, scoring 10 goals. But according to Halloran, she needed to work on her ball-handling skills and get a little stronger. And that's just what Petermann did, scoring 18 times as a sophomore before netting 20 last season and 32 so far this season.

"Sara had natural ability as a freshman, but needed to work on a few things to get better and she did," said Halloran. "She's really taken her game to a whole new level this season, and it's just by working extremely hard in the off-season."

Petermann leads by example. She's the first to do drills and always give her best effort when doing them -- an attribute that has resonated with her teammates.

"Sara's been a captain for two years, and while some captains don't like to be vocal, she does if she has to be," said Halloran. "Sara sets the tone in practice, and if anyone doesn't try their hardest, they know they'll hear from Sara about it. She is just a tremendous leader on and off the field."

For Petermann, being mentioned with Brown and Zwolski is nice, but she's more concerned about the team winning.

"It's cool being being up there with them," said Petermann. "But I'm more concerned about whether we win or lose then any personal achievements. The team winning is the only thing I think about when I'm out there. Personal stats don't mean as much as the team result."

Like all true leaders, Petermann knows what her role on the team is and accepts it.

"I just try to keep everyone focused," said Petermann. "We are all very positive and hard workers, so I just make sure we take things one game at a time."

Petermann will be heading to Michigan State next fall but for now still is undecided if she will continue to play soccer as a walk-on.

"I'll have to wait and see," she said. "I love the game but I just don't know right now if I want to play in college or not."

Despite the team's 18-1 record -- including 14 consecutive wins -- Petermann and the rest of the Corsairs don't want to have happen what happened last season when the Corsairs season ended on a disappointing note, losing in the sectional finals.

"After a loss like that, you never want to feel like that again," said Petermann. "We really committed ourselves over the summer and in the fall and we're pushing ourselves so that doesn't happen again this season."

This week, we'll find out if all that hard work paid off.

The Corsairs will play Libertyville tonight, then likely will have to beat Mundelein on Thursday in order to win the sectional.

Mundelein plays unheralded McHenry in tonight's other semifinal. PREP GIRLS SOCCER