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Naperville Central beat Loyola Academy 11-8 on Friday night in the nightcap of four quarterfinals at the girls water polo state tournament in Lincolnshire.

The Redhawks (23-11) will face defending state champion Mother McAuley (21-7) in the semifinals on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. at Stevenson High School. The Mighty Macs beat Central 8-5 in Naperville on April 29.

Powerhouse Fenwick (26-4), last-year's state runner up and the winner of three of the six IHSA titles, will play Stevenson (28-6) in the other semifinal.

The championship is at 8 p.m. and the third-place game is at 5 p.m.

For the second time this season, the Naperville Central boys water polo team will play Glenbrook South. This match -- Saturday in the semifinals of the IHSA state tournament -- will be significantly more important than their regular season clash.

Central (27-4) beat Glenbrook South 8-7 in that match, which was in pool play of Central's Best of the West Tournament on April 11, to give the Titans (29-1) their lone loss.

So the teams are acquainted. Here's what you have to know (or remember if you must) about the Titans: they are the champions of the Glenbrook North Sectional and the champions of the Central Suburban Conference. OK, you don't really need to know that, but it's true, and slightly impressive.

Four-time defending state champion Fenwick crushed Schaumburg 22-7 in the fourth and final quarterfinal at the boys water polo state tournament on Thursday night in Lincolnshire.

The Friars, whom have won five of the six IHSA state titles, will play Sandburg in the semifinals on Saturday. Naperville Central will play Glenbrook South in the other semifinal.

For a spot of perspective, this was the fifth match this season where Fenwick (30-1) has scored 20 or more goals. The other seven state finalists combined to do that once this year.

With the boys water polo state quarterfinals set to begin Thursday night, four-time defending state champion Fenwick is obviously the heavy.

If you ask the Friars, as the Sun-Times did, that leaves Naperville Central as the team that could give Fenwick the most trouble.

Friars utility man Chris Wendt said even though Fenwick already has beaten four state qualifying teams -- Naperville Central, York, Lyons and Stevenson -- a five-peat isn't a lock.

''We think Naperville Central will be the best game,'' Wendt said. ''All the teams are good. We have to play every game with a high intensity.''

The Redhawks (26-4) play tournament host Stevenson (18-14) in the first quarterfinal at 4:30 p.m.

For their efforts in the championship games of the Neuqua Valley Sectional on Saturday, Sam Virella and Max Saltzman were given Super Baller honors by illpolo.com.

Sam Virella made 15 saves in Naperville Central's 8-5 win over Neuqua Valley, which qualified the Redhawks for the state tournament. Virella did not allow a goal in the first half.

I watched the game and counted 13 saves, but Virella was indeed solid. The sophomore said she was "terrified" about the prospect of playing in the state finals. Somehow I think she will get past that fear when Loyola starts whipping the ball at her goal.

Max Saltzman scored the game-winning goal in the final minute to give Naperville Central a 9-8 win over Neuqua Valley in the Sectional finals.

Saltzman's goal was impressive, coming on a lob pass from Bobby Rickert. Saltzman had defenders around him and was still able to redirect the ball into the net past Neuqua's Brad Kay when the pressure was on. Max celebrated the game-winner with an emphatic double-armed slap of the water.

Now that Naperville Central has won both the boys and girls Neuqua Valley Sectional titles, the question for Naperville area water polo folk and Land O' Lincoln's WP community at large is simple.

Can anyone beat Fenwick?

The Fenwick boys have won four consecutive state championships and five of six overall. On the girls side, Fenwick is actually not defending champ, but was the runner-up in 2007 and won the previous three big trophies. So, you know, the questions still stands.

Neuqua Valley boys water polo coach Martin Bell was effusive in his praise of not only his goalie, Brad Kay, but also Naperville Central's Tyler Kelley after Bell's Wildcats lost 9-8 to Central in the sectional championship on Saturday.

"Fenwick's goalie is always talked about," Bell said, "but I think people forget about Tyler Kelley and Brad Kay. I think the two goalies that were playing today are one, two in the state of Illinois as far as goalies go. It depends on the game as far as who's one and who's two, but they're both amazing players."

In Saturday's championship match, Kay had seven saves and Kelley made six, according to The Heat Index.

Kelley stopped three shots when Neuqua had the man advantage.

Kay made two such stops, including one at the first half buzzer, but could not squeeze the ball when Max Saltzman scored the game winner off Bobby Rickert's lob pass in the final minute and change.

The semifinals of the Neuqua Valley Sectional went by the numbers on Friday night in the boys and girls matches, as Naperville Central and Neuqua Valley both advanced to both championships.

In both cases, the championship match pits No. 1 seed Central and against No. 2 seed Neuqua. In both cases, the final four featured the four top seeds. So, seeding committee take a bow.

Chad Ganden will not be back next season as the boys swimming coach at Waubonsie Valley, The Heat Index has learned.

Whether or not Ganden will remain as the boys water polo coach has yet to be decided. The Warriors lost to Naperville Central on Friday night in the semifinals of the Neuqua Valley Sectional.

Email queries sent to Waubonsie athletic director Mike Rogowski have not been replied to as of this posting.

Waubonsie's boys swimming head coach position was posted on the job board on the District 204 website on Thursday. Ganden told The Heat Index that he has accepted a teaching position at a Joliet elementary school.

"I needed a teaching job," Ganden said. "There weren't any available at Waubonsie."

He said he can't teach in Joliet and coach the Warriors because Waubonsie's afternoon practice starts before his new school's last bell.

"I became a teacher so I could coach," Ganden said. "But if I can't teach, I cant coach."

When Neuqua Valley's Chelsea Reczek gets in the pool on Thursday night for the second-seeded Wildcats in a sectional quarterfinal against St. Charles North, she will do so with a broken finger.

Reczek told The Heat Index that she broke the middle finger of her left hand during the Stevenson Co-ed tournament last weekend. The fracture is on the side of the finger between the second and third knuckle.

Despite her finger being in a metal splint and spending a lot of time with an ice pack, Reczek was all smiles about her prognosis.

"It's not my dominant hand, so I'm not worried about it," Reczek said on Wednesday night.

The right-handed Reczek said the swelling on her finger has reduced drastically. She said she didn't expect the fracture to be an issue on Thursday.

"Just tape it up," she said.

Naperville Central senior Kara Wilson, the school's all-time goal scorer, told The Heat Index on Tuesday night that she will not play water polo when she goes to college next year.

"I decided not to pursue that," Wilson said after scoring four goals in an 8-5 loss to defending state champion Mother McAuley.

Wilson will play her final home match on Wednesday night against St. Charles East, her final regular season road match on Thursday at Sandburg and her final tournament on Saturday at the Stevenson Co-ed.

After that, Kara Wilson said she hopes her water polo career doesn't end like last season -- at the Neuqua Valley Sectional. She also said she is aware the clock is ticking.

"Yeah definitely," Wilson said. "I mean, after this year, I'm done. So it's kind of sad. So hopefully we'll end on a good note. I mean, last year was a tough way to end. My freshman and sophomore year it was great to go to state, so it'd be great if we could rally and just play really well at sectionals."