Talbot, Barrington right on target

The Barrington girls volleyball team was connecting just as well as Megan Talbot's jump serve on Tuesday night in the Fillies' gymnasium.

Talbot, the Fillies' junior middle hitter, excited the crowd with 3 aces in a row to give the hosts a 4-point cushion early in the second set, and they never looked back en route to a 25-17, 25-18 triumph over visiting Conant.

The victory came three weeks after the Fillies had dropped a two-set match to Conant on the opening night of Mid-Suburban West action.

"Honestly, I think we've just grown from that first time we played them," said setter Annie Rolecek, the only senior in first-year Barrington coach Michelle Jakubowski's starting lineup. "And out positive energy was way up. We really played together as opposed to last time (25-19, 26-24 loss)."

The key server in Set 1 for the Fillies was Jessica Jones, who staked the Fillies to an 8-2 lead, with 7 straight service points, including 4 of her match-high 6 aces.

Junior Claudia Locke also had pair of aces for Barrington (2-4, 5-14) and teammate Olivia Hagan had 1.

"They served us off the court," said Cougars senior setter Elisa Ambrose who collected 8 assists. "We'll definitely go back and work on serve receive. We made our own errors."

Conant (8-12, 2-4) was led on attack by seniors Katie Lomas (4 kills) and Alyssa Wachal (2). Classmate Dhara Patel led the beck row with 11 digs.

"Our unforced errors hurt," said first year Cougars coach Drewann Pancratz. "And we served only 70 percent. We made many uncharacteristic mistakes."

But make no mistake, the Fillies are improving. They were coming off a three-set win over Lake Forest the night before.

"That was really good momentum for us," Rolecek added.

"That match (Lake Forest) did help,' Jakubowski added. "Lake Forest has some good hitters and runs a quick offense. That match gave the girls some confidence.

"We've been playing some good volleyball, but maybe for only 5 or 6 points. It was nice to see us play a complete match tonight."

It was a complete match for Talbot who also had 2 kills, 2 blocks and 3 block assists.

Not to mention her jump serve spark, which gave the Fillies the 8-4 lead in Set 2.

"I practice it a lot," said Talbot, who tossed one ball up for her serve and caught it for a retry. "The toss is the key. I just have to make sure it's high enough and out far enough so I can run into it."

Rolecek was running a balanced offense that saw Katie Clement and Gabrielle Morris lead with 3 kills apiece.

Rolecek got into the attacking role herself in a big way near the end of the match.

She came up with back-to-back first-attack kills for a 24-17 lead.

Following a service error, the Fillies won the match when Conant was unable to handle Locke's attack.

"I think we are more unified as a team now and more confident," said Clement, who also had 5 digs. "Now we are expecting to win rather than hoping to win."

"We're getting better," Jakubowski added. "We had some really good practices and the girls have been playing with passion and having fun. And that's what it's all about. We've been cutting down on our errors and starting to do things right."