Girls volleyball: Rizzo closes with home runs in Fremd's victory

The closing factor in both sets of Tuesday's Senior night for Fremd was a junior.

And that sat just fine with the nine seniors who were hoping to remain in the chase for the Mid-Suburban West girls volleyball title in their final high school seasons.

Jess Rizzo put down the winning kills in each set, not to mention three of her team's last 4 points in Fremd' 25-23, 25-15 victory over visiting Barrington.

The victory allowed the Vikings to avenge its only loss in the West (to Barrington, which is now 9-12 and 5-3).

And more importantly, Fremd (13-7, 7-1) remained tied for first with Palatine (19-4, 7-1) with two matches to play.

Rizzo led the Vikes with 6 kills while Jess Mazur, also a junior, was tops in block kills (2).

"Rizzo had a match," aid Fremd coach Curt Pinley who won his 395th career match with the girls program. "Her swings closed out both sets. Both junior Jess's (Rizzo and Mazur) had really big nights."

But this night belonged to the seniors.

"We've grown together so much and connected so well," said senior libero Karolina Sas, who produced 6 digs, 7 passes and an ace. "I've played four years in a row with some of the same girls and we're like a family. I don't know what we'll do when the season is over."

"It's going to be very sad when the season comes to an end and I won't being seeing this group anymore," Pinley told the crowd before the match. "We haven't had this kind of team concept in a long time."

That concept can also be seen on the stat sheet where so many contribute.

Senior Ysabel Lee added 5 kills for the Vikes while classmate Kailyn Bryk added 2. Bailey Hooker led with 3 aces and senior Rebecca Uhrich was 6-of-6 serve receiving.

Senior setter Natalie Freund handed out 15 assists and had 2 crafty dumps for kills.

"This senior night was the best," said Hooker, another member of the senior group which also included Sara Ganas, Jenny Miller and Anna Siciliano. "We wanted be able to focus on our final two matches and now we can look ahead to them."

Rizzo was focused on the final points in each set.

Barrington faced set point when a kill by Andi Capel got the Fillies to within 24-23.

But Rizzo smashed a kill off the Fillies' block for the set winner.

In Set 2, Peyton Tilly's block pulled the visitors to within 14-9 but Fremd scored 11 of next 17 points to gain the verdict.

Mazur's kill on a slide set from Freund made it 21-14 before a perfectly-placed tip kill by Hooker and 3 kills by Rizzo provided Fremd's final 4 points to end the match.

"We are doing a better job closing out matches," Pinley said. "We struggled earlier finishing."

"It's awesome to get this win," Sas said. "We've worked so hard in practice."

Senior Cecilia Stack and freshman Peyton Tilly led Barrington with 4 kills apiece while senior setter Chloe Layton directed the offense.

Sophomore Sabrina Lontos came off the bench and provided 2 quick-sets assists to Stack for kills.

"Obviously we made a lot of errors, 13 in the first set," said Barrington coach Michelle Jakubowski said. "When we pass, we are a really good team. We never give up. We know it's two and half week to the postseason so that's what we are looking forward to. We made great strides from the start of the season and we want to make more for the rest of the season."