Fremd holds on for sweep

With the way Fremd and Barrington played in Tuesday night's girls volleyball match, a coach can take one of two approaches: praise the good or focus on improving mistakes.

Oddly enough, one wouldn't figure which coach did which by the final results.

The Vikings swept the Fillies 25-21, 29-27 in the Mid-Suburban West opener.

In each game, though, Barrington overcame large early deficits to tie the score late.

In the first game, the Fillies trailed 15-8, but rallied to even the score at 18-18.

In the second game, it was a 16-5 deficit, but Barrington was able to even the score at 23-23.

With that in mind, Fremd coach Curt Pinley felt his team (6-1, 1-0) needed to improve upon mistakes it made in fundamental phases of the game.

"I've kind of challenged my team to work on the little things," Pinley said. "The little things we need to work on are: passing, setting, hitting and serving. We just need to improve those things. We didn't do a very good job of it tonight, and it nearly cost us."

Barrington coach Chris Bronke had a gut feeling his team would fight back when it was down.

With his team trailing 18-10 in the second game, he turned to his assistant coach and said, "I just don't feel like we are out of this yet."

Junior Emily Harris (team-high 5 kills) was a star during the Fillies' comebacks in each game. She consistently smashed the ball over the net, causing poor hitting attempts by Fremd.

But Bronke attributed the runs not to any one player, but instead his team's athletic ability.

"At any point in time, their athleticism can take over," Bronke said of his team (1-2, 0-1). "I don't think we played volleyball any better down the stretch. I don't think we were any cleaner with the ball control. I think the athletes just kind of said we're going to go out there and compete."

But toward the end of each game, Fremd's Kaitlyn Pascus (match-high 9 kills) and Colleen Andersen (5 kills) provided kills to end Barrington's momentum.

"Fortunately we were able to close the door when we needed to because if we would've gone three, it would have been a coin flip that third game," said Pinley, whose offense was set by Natalie Bruck (10 assists) and Kayla Price (2). "This is the bottom line, if you are a good team, you're still going to try to figure out a way to win. The one thing we did do tonight, even with the play that we had, and we weren't playing particularly well this evening, we still found a way to win."

Sarah Welsh and Price each had 2 aces for the Vikings.

It was a mixed bag of reactions for both sides, but Bronke summed the game up best for both sides.

"I think both coaches are probably going to look back on this and have a lot of goods and a lot of bands," he said. " There's just no other way to put it."

Hersey d. Buffalo Grove: Hersey (6-2, 1-0) began defense of its MSL East crown with a 25-13, 25-17 victory over Buffalo Grove.

Setter Shelly Mueller (35-of-35, 20 assists) directed an offense which was led by Ann Carroll (7 kills), McKenzie Forbes (5), Jamie Welter (4) and Katie Lill (4).

Becca Haraf (6) and Forbes (5) led in digs.

BG (1-6, 0-1) received 6 kills from Jackie Sisi and 5 from Jillian Kazmoerczak while Kelly Sommers and Sara McCormack each handed out 6 assists.

Elk Grove d. Prospect: Krystina Leazer (11 kills), Jessica Condon (6) and Katie Loos (6) helped the host Grenadiers (5-3, 1-0) celebrate their annual "Hawaiian Night" against Prospect with a 25-13, 15-25, 25-18 victory.

Kelsey Prochenski (14 assists) and Condon (9) directed the Grenadiers' attack while Olivia Roback collected 10 digs and Leazer 7.

The Knights (1-2, 0-1) were led on attack by Sarah Hunt (6 kills), Rachel Hunt (5) and Tracy Heffernan Sarah Hunt also had a match-high 9 blocks. Danielle Siwik (8 assists) and Abby Homuth (6) set the Knights offense.

Conant d. Hoffman Estates: Senior setter Tricia Kutramanes handed out 17 assists for Conant (6-2, 1-0) in a 25-11, 25-11 triumph over Hoffman Estates.

The Cougars attack was led by Mandy Larsen (5 kills), Georgie Kutramanes (4), Katherine Hozian (3) and Kelsey Paulson (3).

Kutramanes fired 4 aces and Lynette Mueller collected 15 digs.

Hoffman (0-1) was led on attack by Megan Bernardoni (3 kills), Alex Wulbecker (2), Jada Stotts (2) while Stephnaike Schwarz handed out 4 assists.

Rolling Meadows d. Wheeling: Michelle Waisgainis (6 kills), Dana Demmert (5) and Katie Stensland (4) were the top attackers for Meadows (3-5, 1-0) in a 25-22, 25-23 victory to open MSL East play.

Stensland (11 assists) and Libby Marsh (8) set the offense for Mustangs while Sara Sompolski collected 9 digs and Demmert 8.

Wheeling first-year coach Jason Kopkowski, a Meadows graduate, was going up against his former coach Janet Opels.

Kopkowski watched Bianca Szarfarowicz lead his Wildcats' attack with 10 kills while Danielle Zimmerman put down 5. Diana Stankowicz had 2 aces for Wheeling (2-6, 0-1) while Olivia Semeria and Kelsie Jurik each had one.

Schaumburg d. Palatine: The defending MSL champions started out West play with a 21-25, 25-23, 25-17 triumph as Sarah McGinn (7 kills), Taylor Deetjen (3) and Rachel Stuehm paced the attack set by Marni Gonnering (10 assists).

Aleks Kostka (19) and Ellen Kostecki (8) led in digs for the Saxons (2-5, 1-0).