Barrington’s best in MSL West
With junior outside hitter Peyton Lang equaling her career-best of 12 kills in a match and senior Olivia Szuszkiewicz adding 9 more, Barrington’s girls volleyball team is back in a familiar spot.
The Fillies clinched the Mid-Suburban West on Tuesday night with a 25-22, 27-25 victory at Fremd to earn a spot in the MSL championship match a week from today against visiting East champion Hersey.
Barrington won six of the seven MSL titles it qualified for in the 2000s and will be making its first appearance since 2006.
“It feels really good,” said Lang, who also added a block. “It feels good to have people talking about us again and having good things to say.”
The Fillies (22-5, 9-0) have done their talking on the court, where they have won all nine of their MSL matches, losing only one set along the way to Schaumburg (25-22).
“I’m really proud of these girls,” said first-year coach Rob Ridenour. “One of the first things out of their mouths before the season started was making this division championship their first goal.”
Fremd (15-7, 6-3) did its best to slow down the Fillies in Set 2.
The Vikings’ 9-6 lead was the biggest by either team in the set. A powerful crosscourt kill by Lang tied it at 24-24.
Fremd nudged ahead 25-24 on a kill by junior Nicole Obos.
However, the Vikes came back to tie it on a kill by Szuszkewicz.
That brought junior Lauren Shectman to the service line and she promptly ended the match with a pair of aces, split by a Fremd timeout.
“I just always go up there thinking I want an ace,” said the 6-foot-1 middle hitter. “I told my coach I wanted to go for the 1-6 split. I didn’t want to serve it near their libero (Nina Scott) because she’s really good. I saw a big split on the floor and I went for it.”
“Lauren is a confident kid,” Ridenour said. “It was great to see her end it with those aces.”
Szuskiewicz also had 11 digs and an ace.
“It’s been five years since we played in a conference championship,” she said. “It’s a big change for our program and hopefully it will become a pattern again.”
“It’s crazy and so rewarding because we’ve worked so hard for this and made a goal at the start of the season,” added Shectman, who had 3 kills and 3 aces.
Fremd was led by Rebecca Clarke’s 3 kills and 19 assists from Marilyn Lortz. Freshman Lane Hindenburg served 2 aces.
“Obviously, playing them close is something to build upon,” said Vikings coach Curt Pinley, who has a combined girl and boys volleyball win total of 631 (273 with the Fremd girls) since he began coaching the boys in 1992. “Barrington has had an outstanding season. I thought we pushed them to the limit but they were the better team.”
Junior Julia Thompson added 5 kills for the Fillies while senior Lauren Dunseith ran the offense with 22 assists. Amanda Dee collected 12 digs and Thompson 10.
“They were so much better than the first time we played them,” Ridenour said. “Curt has done such a good job improving them, especially with ball control. We were a little slow in a lot of respects but it was great to see we could win a close one in Set 2.
“We showed a lot of mental toughness in the second set.”