Diverse Barrington offense overwhelms Jacobs
Barrington setter Lauren Dunseith was an equal opportunity destroyer Tuesday.
Dunseith finished No. 2 Barrington’s 25-21, 25-17 sweep of No. 3 Jacobs in a Class 4A Dundee-Crown regional semifinal with 27 assists after she distributed the ball diplomatically between four quality finishers.
The result was four Fillies with at least six kills: outside hitter Peyton Lang (9 kills), outside hitter Olivia Szuszkiewicz (9), middle hitter Lauren Schectman (6) and opposite Julia Thompson (6).
“Throughout the season they’ve all been pretty strong, all pretty equal,” Dunseith said. “No one has really stood out as the best of the best and, to me, that’s a good thing. Tonight, they were unstoppable.”
“We had great balance tonight,” Barrington coach Rob Ridenour said. “Lauren has done a great job of distributing our offense. We’re unpredictable from that standpoint, which is one of our strengths.”
The victory advances Barrington (28-7) to Thursday’s regional title match against top seed Huntley (29-7). The Red Raiders defeated Dundee-Crown 25-11, 25-12 in Tuesday’s first semifinal.
Jacobs was prepared for the diverse Barrington offense, but preparation only goes so far against a volleyball team that can attack in myriad ways.
“They’re a good team,” Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer said. “We’ve had a few common opponents at different times of the year, but they had players like (Szuszkiewicz) who was fantastic. They set that ball fast for her and she was extremely aggressive.”
Shectman and Dunseith combined 6 times on quick sets that gave Jacobs (24-12) problems.
“We studied that, but we still had a hard time stopping that,” Dwyer said. “(Shectman) is just a very good athlete and they’re a very solid team. Serve receive really hurt us big time. I mean, the girls stayed aggressive and went after the ball no matter what. We just had a hard time running a lot more offense.”
Game 1 experienced 7 ties and 2 lead changes until Dunseith set Szuszkiewicz on the left side for a powerful spike that ignited a 9-2 Barrington run.
Game 2 was never in question. The Fillies opened on a 10-1 run, capped by Lang’s spike kill. The Golden Eagles rallied to within 14-10 on kills by Maris Smith, Rachel Arcenaux and Alyssa Ehrhardt, but the Fillies scored the next 3 points, 2 of them off the fist of Thompson.
The win turns Barrington’s attention to Huntley.
“Huntley’s a great team, but sometimes that’s the way it works out in these regionals,” Ridenour said. “We’re looking forward to playing them. It will be a really competitive match and I think the girls will be ready to go.”
It was a sudden ending to the season for the Golden Eagles, who won 24 matches and finished tied for third place in the brutal Valley Division of the Fox Valley Conference.
“We kept pushing and we didn’t’ let up this season,” said Rebecca Jobst, one of only two seniors on the team. “We just created this bond and I just love them so much. It’s going to be really sad leaving. It was just an amazing season and we weren’t expecting it. I think that’s what made us push harder. We were the underdogs and we really showed our stuff.”
Ehrhardt led the Golden Eagles with 9 kills and 13 digs. Jobst had 11 digs and senior middle blocker Nikki Maddoch finished with 2 kills. Junior Maris Smith added 7 kills.