SouthtownStar girls water polo note

The big question heading into the offseason is which team will be the one to beat in the Southland in 2015.

It was a senior-heavy year in the area with most of the top squads set to take big hits to graduation.

Mother McAuley, which hopes to make it back to state for the fifth year, loses just four seniors but they’re valuable ones, including leading scorers Clare Bryar and Fran Williamson.

“We had a really young team,”McAuley coach Vanessa Carroll said. “We’ll be counting on a lot of the young girls to come back and really step it up next year.”

The area’s other state qualifier, Lincoln-Way East, had eight valuable seniors on its roster and will have to rebuild.

Sectional finalists Bremen co-op and Andrew also take big hits.

Sandburg perhaps will be the most well-equipped for a big 2015, losing just two seniors and returning leading scorer Sarah Dolitsky.

Lincoln-Way North is a team to watch with a good core of young players led by sophomore Cassidy DeGraff, who scored 64 goals and made 142 steals.