Boys volleyball: Hersey closes out MSL champ Barrington
Tenacious D - as in defense - was in the house for Hersey.
For that matter, so were tenacious hitting, serving and blocking.
The Huskies trailed Mid-Suburban League rival Barrington for the better part of both sets on Friday night at the Palatine boys volleyball sectional semifinal. But Hersey was able to turn the switch late in both sets to score a 28-26, 25-22 victory.
Hersey will face Libertyville at 6 p.m. in Tuesday's championship match.
It was a flip of the script on Friday for the Huskies, who lost at home to the Broncos in the MSL championship game last week.
"We were a little nervous last week," said Hersey junior middle Joe Nugent of the MSL title game defeat. "Tonight we came out and executed our game plan, and after some very tough early points we were able to pull it off."
Jake Mailloux and Matt Hopkins led the Huskies on attack with 6 kills apiece, while Josh Babicz had 11 kills for Barrington.
"Hersey played good all night," said Broncos coach Rob Ridenour. "But in the last few points of each game they were unbelievable, and that was the difference."
Hersey trailed 23-20 in the first set when coach Nancy Lill called time out.
"She told us just to calm down, play our game and we were going to come back," Nugent said. "Funny thing is, it happened just like she said it would."
The Huskies stormed back to win the first set, getting the final 2 points on a block kill from Hopkins and a Barrington attack that went past the end line.
"We were keeping it close, keeping it close," said Hersey setter Vince Reisel. "And we had the mental toughness to push through. Once we got the game to 25-25 I knew we were going to win it."
Hersey turned the tables again in Set 2, trailing almost the whole way but rallying to tie it at 20-20 when Camran Saeed scored a kill of the block.
The Huskies got it to 24-22 and then Hopkins put down the match-winning kill.
"We talked about being a little more aggressive on the serve between games," Ridenour said. "We were being a little tentative, and we did have a great start to Set 2 (the Broncos led 4-0). It was the last 5 points in each game that got us."
Nugent and Saeed each hit 5 kills for Hersey. Teammate Justin Hong finished with 19 digs while Christian Hong, who Lill said "came up huge for us" had 12 digs. Reisel handed out 23 assists.
Hopkins and Patrick O'Brien led the winners on the block with three apiece.
"These guys have faced some adversity," Lill said of her team. "We came out of a very tough regional, and they were so determined tonight. They made the plays they needed to make. They came back in the first game and got the momentum, and then they grabbed the momentum in the second game and wouldn't let go."