One simply has to wonder how a 17-year-old junior has upended the world of girls high school soccer in the state.
Maybe because she is King?
Surely, there’s a more complicated answer that explains why St. Viator’s Loryn King is the most talked about player as the last single-class state tournament finals begin Friday at Naperville Central. But not so complicated is why King has earned a spot on the Tribune’s All-State girls soccer team for the second consecutive season.
King scored one of the most celebrated goals in girls state soccer history Tuesday night in St. Viator’s playoff victory over St. Charles East, a school that had won the previous five state titles and eight since 1990. That goal was her personal-best 31st of the season–a year after she tied the state’s season assist mark of 36.
“Lori is not about that stuff,” said St. Viator coach Rory Dames, who also coaches her during the club season. “She’s more interested in the team. How many goals she has and how many assists she has — that doesn’t interest her.”
That kind of “stuff” does interest others who follow the sport. King would need an outstanding senior year, but she’s within reach of becoming the first player in the state to reach the 100-goal, 100-assist mark for her career. Currently she has 88 goals and 71 assists playing for the East Suburban Catholic school in Arlington Heights.
What does King think of all this? It sounds AC–athletically correct–but the forward is focusing on one thing: winning a state title.
“We wanted to get better every game and hopefully when we got to the state finals, if we got there, we wouldn’t have to make any adjustments,” she said. “We basically wanted to build as a team.”
That team hasn’t been hurt by her individual play. King hasn’t needed to score in bunches this season because the Lions have 18 shutouts. But her goals have come when needed the most.
In the Palatine tournament on May 12, King faced another all-stater, Rockford Boylan’s Tara Hurless. She scored all three goals in St. Viator’s 3-0 victory. In the sectional final against the best goalkeeper in the state, Fremd’s Katie Straka, King scored the lone goal.
Then came a supersectional matchup Tuesday that had the aura of a state final: No. 1 St. Charles East and No. 2 St. Viator. The game was tied 1-1 in the final two minutes when King took possession of the ball at midfield. The Saints couldn’t stop her from penetrating the penalty area — and they couldn’t stop the shot that ended their 55-game unbeaten streak.
Lake Zurich coach Pete Ternes, whose team handed the Lions their only loss this season, was an assistant at St. Viator when King came in as a freshman.
“Speed. Just raw speed,” is what Ternes said he saw. “We’d do these runs and she’d just kill everybody. It was unbelievable. She could run forever and she was fast.”
Fremd coach Steve Keller, who was a standout for college soccer power Indiana before playing professionally for teams like the Dallas Burn and Chicago Stingers, knows exactly what Ternes meant.
“I think it [speed] can really unbalance a defense,” Keller said. “You have to respect a player who can take you one on one. I think it’s something defenders fear when they know a player is faster than them.”
Oddly, it was King’s determination to get in shape last fall that slowed her up at the start of the season. She’d always run to keep in shape, but King decided to give cross country a try. A try? She finished second in Class AA to York’s outstanding Maria Cicero.
But cross country training, King said, “didn’t help me that much. In a way it kind of detracted from me. It kind of slowed me down.”
That’s because King wasn’t doing the sprint training that promotes short bursts of speed. Still, Dames says that was a blessing in disguise.
“When she lost her pace in the fall season, she had to do a lot more things than just outrun people,” he said.
King isn’t sure what she’ll do this fall. It’s not automatic that she’ll run cross country again.
She said it depends on how busy she is with club soccer and the classroom. King, who carries a 5.2 grade-point average on a 5.0 scale at St. Viator, is interested in chemistry, physics and biology. She has her eye on Northwestern, where distant cousin Katie Hertz–who set the state’s all-time assist mark of 110 while at Sandburg from 1995-98–goes.
King is one of two players to repeat on the first team. The other is three-time all-stater Kim Grodek of Barrington, who was slowed at the start of the season by injuries but managed 22 goals and eight assists.
The youngest player is Normal University High freshman Ashlee Pistorius, whose 57 goals (to go along with 26 assists) is fourth on the all-time list of season highs. Sophomore Rachael Sauerman of Naperville North proved herself as the state’s best marking back by stopping King and Wheaton Warrenville South’s first teamer, junior Therese Heaton.
Like King, Heaton uses her speed to score (24 goals). Juniors dominated the first team with five selections. The others were Oswego midfielder Julianne Sitch (17 goals), Lincoln-Way’s versatile Kristen Jedlo (19 goals, 13 assists) and St. Charles East’s force as a defensive midfielder, Kristin Zoelle.
Hurless, who scored 31 goals to finish with 122 for her career, is headed to play for the Illini and coach Trish Taliaferro after being named Gatorade’s player of the year in the state.
The list of where the all-state seniors are headed is impressive: Grodek (Indiana), Libertyville midfielder Lindsay Moore (Marquette) and Straka (Duke).
As good as these players are, Mel Brooks might has put this season in perspective with what he said in “History of the World, Part I”:
“It’s good to be King.”
Tribune girls All-State soccer team
Therese Heaton, forward
Wheaton Warrenville South, junior
– Scored 24 goals this year to lead the Tigers’ powerful offense, which included sisters Rachel and Kristin Radcliffe.
Tara Hurless, forward
Rockford Boylan, senior
– Gatorade’s player of the year in the state finished with 31 goals this season (122 for her career); she’s headed to Illinois in the fall.
Loryn King, forward
St. Viator, senior
– Winning goal against St. Charles East will be long remembered; she has a shot at being first in state to reach 100 goals, 100 assists.
Kim Grodek, midfielder
Barrington, senior
– Indiana recruit among the IHSA’s top 10 career scoring leaders with 129 goals-22 of them this season.
Lindsay Moore, midfielder
Libertyville, senior
– “Most unselfish player I’ve seen in years,” coach Scott Schinto said of the Marquette recruit, who impressed every coach.
Ashlee Pistorius, midfielder
Normal University High, freshman
– 57 goals puts her fourth on the state’s all-time single-season scoring list; she also had 26 assists.
Julianne Sitch, midfielder
Oswego, junior
– Olympic development team player brought the Panthers into prominence with 17 goals, 5 assists and powerful, deft dribbling.
Kristen Jedlo, midfielder
Lincoln-Way, junior (The name of the school as published has been corrected in this item.)
– A factor all over the field for coach Brian Papa, who said she’s been his best player the past two years.
Rachael Sauerman, defender
Naperville North, sophomore
– Coach Alan Harris assigned her to cover the state’s top players, and this marking back was able to stop them.
Kristin Zoelle, defender
St. Charles East, junior
– Gash in scalp couldn’t stop her in last few games; she proved to be a headache for teams trying to win balls in the air.
Katie Straka, goalkeeper
Fremd, senior
– Duke-bound athlete is the best in a state saturated with good keepers; best of 10 shutouts was playoff gem vs. Elk Grove.
All-State soccer second team
%% Name, school Yr. Position
Shelly Hecht, Jacobs Sr. Forward
Jenna Johnson, LyonsTownship Sr. Forward
Kristen Zmijewski, Waubonsie Valley Jr. Forward
Marisa Brown, Evanston Jr. Midfielder
Alaree Gunville, Chatham Glenwood Sr. Midfielder
Rachel Radcliffe, Wheaton
Warrenville South Sr. Midfielder
Julie Thompson, Naperville Central Jr Midfielder
Erin Walter, Elk Grove Jr. Midfielder
Jacqueline Luehrs, St. Viator Jr. Defender
Sarah Uyenishi, Lake Zurich Jr. Defender
Kandice Golar, Sandburg Sr. Goalkeeper
%%
Special mention
Forwards: Adelaide Anderson, sr., Young; Meghan Boler, so., St. Francis; Jen Buczkowski, so., Elk Grove; Megan Bushue, so., Champaign Centennial; Nell Compernolle, jr., New Trier; Jessica Eenigenburg, jr., Illiana Christian; Jen Jeffers, so., Lake Zurich; Kacey McDonald, sr., Andrew; Jennie Nobis, jr., Quincy; Kristin Radcliffe, fr., Wheaton Warrenville South; Courtney Russert, sr., Manteno; Jamie Wasielewski, jr., Joliet; Kate Williams, sr., Hinsdale Central.
Midfielders: Jessie Bayne, so., Triad; Amy Bedford, sr., St. Ignatius; Katie Dyke, sr., Mother Guerin; Carolyn Hack, sr., Downers Grove North; Joyce Kleinheinz, jr., Libertyville; Katy Lindenmuth, jr., Geneva; Katie O’Connell, sr., Mother McAuley; Mandy Rost, jr., Palatine; Heather Sorgatz, sr., Glenbard West; Jenny Southworth, so., Springfield; Lanisa Tricoci, sr., Lake Park; Jessica Vaughn, jr., Lincoln Park; Lauren Weber, so., St. Viator.
Defenders: Colleen McAndrews, jr., St. Charles East; Shannon McDonnell, so., Sandburg; Caitlin McKeown, jr., Barrington; Grace Traynor, sr., Neuqua Valley; Amy Witt, jr., Wheaton Warrenville South; Arin Yarc, sr., Libertyville.
Goalkeepers: Maureen Carey, sr., Wheaton Warrenville South; Vicki Montano, sr., Warren; Julie Ryder, so., DeKalb; Lexi Stormo, sr., St. Charles East; Sarah West, so., Downers Grove South; Amanda Wrzos, sr., St. Viator.
— Alan Sutton.
