Barrington passes MSL West test
Barrington girls volleyball coach Chris Bronke loves the way his girls have practiced this season.
Thursday night, the fans in the stands got to see their practice habits, too.
Going up against Mid-Suburban West leader Schaumburg, the host Fillies kept themselves alive in the conference race with a 25-22, 25-21 homecourt victory.
"For the first time all season, I felt like I was watching us in practice," said Bronke, whose team improved to 9-12 and 5-2 in the West, tied for second with Fremd (14-6, 5-2) and 1 match behind the Saxons (13-6, 6-1). "We've talked about getting our 'practice-selves' into the match, and tonight we did."
Florida Atlantic recruit and Barrington senior Madison Lang was certainly in the match, connecting for 19 assists, 7 digs, 4 kills, 2 blocks and 2 aces.
She and Saxons standout Emily Young (USC bound) put on setting clinics, each producing dynamic dumps into the middle of the floor that left the defense scrambling without a chance to prevent the kill.
"Madison played unbelievably well," Bronke said. "This was our first match season where our ball control was good enough for her to run the offense the way it was designed, using the middle to set up the right side."
The Fillies did that to perfection late in Game 2 when three times Lang found junior Joy Johnson for kills. Johnson's third one gave the Fillies a 21-17 edge.
Successive kills by Kelly Koutnik, Rebecca Thompson and Young brought the Saxons back to within 21-20.
A serving error and ace by Johnson gave the hosts a 23-20 lead.
Moments later, a kill off a block by sophomore Julia Thompson (9 kills) and another beautiful fake set and dump by Lang ended the match.
"We knew from out first match with Schaumburg when we beat them in the first game (25-16) that we were good enough to do this," Lang said. "For sure, this was our best match of the season. And hopefully there will be more to come."
Johnson finished with 7 kills and 12 digs.
"They were blocking me in the middle," Lang said. "Joy had no block and she was great using that."
"We were really excited for this match," Johnson said. "We knew Schaumburg was tough. Madison is a really good setter and I love playing with her. It was just teamwork."
Neither team led by more than 4 points in Game 1.
Barrington went ahead 19-15 on a kill by Thompson and ace from Lang.
Schaumburg got to within 22-20 before back-to-back kills by Thompson got the Fillies to game point.
A block by Sara Travis closed the gap to 24-22 before a service error ended the game.
"Barrington played a solid match," said Schaumburg coach Jeanette Pancratz. "They made fewer errors than us and we need to make bigger plays defensively than we did and that's kudos to Barrington."
The Saxons were led on attack by Young (6 kills), Koutnik (50, Thompson (4) and Bria Hailey (3). Natasha Senecal collected 8 digs.
"We control our own destiny, we've said that from the get-go," Pancratz said. "We'll take them one match at a time and we must be ready to play. There are no easy matches."
Sophomore Lauren Shechtman added 4 kills for the Fillies while juniors Olivia Szuszkiewicz and Johnson collected 12 digs apiece, followed by Amanda Dee (7) and Lang (7). Tara Grundy served 3 aces.
"We still need help in the division," Bronke said. "The fact that we won in 2 games does help since we lost to Schaumburg in three. But we need help and we need to keep playing well ourselves."
Fremd d. Conant: Visiting Fremd (14-6, 5-2) closed to within one match of first place in the MSL West with a 25-21, 26-24 victory.
Alex Messner (13-of-13 serve receive and 8 digs) put down 15 kills while teammates Claire Brady (6) and Jessi Weidemann (5) also fueled the attack set by sophomore Marylin Lortz (27 assists). Kendall Shoaf recorded 4 blocks.
Conant (2-5) was led by Chelsea Vanicek (7 kills), Jennifer Donnell (5), Kelly Anderson (4) and Allie Bauch (4).
Palatine d. Hoffman Estates: The visiting Pirates (10-11, 3-5) received 10 kills from Amanda Hilmer and 5 from Laura Kluk (25 assists) in a 25-18, 25-21 victory.
Kaley Sierawski collected 13 digs and Casey Dolen had 10 for the winners while Hoffman was led by Jada Stotts (7 kills). Mirela Horozovic had 4 aces for the Hawks (7-12, 1-6) and Kelsey Pellus 3.
Hersey d. Elk Grove: Hersey's Kelsey Haas (6 kills), Christina Solans (5), Alexa Stedman (5) and Kristen Pedersen (4) were the main attack options for sophomore setter Abby Fesl (21 assists) in a 25-18, 25-12 victory.
Host Hersey improved to 18-3 and 7-0.
The Grenadiers (9-11, 2-5) were paced on attack by Diamond Boyd (5 kills) and Jessica Condon (4), who also had 10 assists. Jessica Balzano collected 8 digs.
Wheeling d Buffalo Grove: Stephanie Fuchs handed out 28 assists and Kellie Kuzmanic put down 13 kills to lead visiting Wheeling (15-5, 6-1) to a 25-23, 23-25, 25-20 triumph.
Kayla Jordan (8 kills), Syndey Keith (4) and Sarah Hennessy (3) also sparked the attack while Annette Gorzelany made 10 digs against the Bison (3-17, 1-6).