Girls volleyball: Barrington rows its way past Stevenson
A mini version of a rowboat paddle signed by all its players will be with the Barrington girls volleyball team at every game this season.
"We're all rowing the boat together," senior Addie Brookbank explained about the Fillies' theme for the 2024 season. "It's all about teamwork. What Is behind you doesn't matter. But the future matters. That is what is ahead of you, so you need to focus on the future."
The Fillies' focus was on target in their season opener Wednesday in Lincolnshire where they merrily volleyed their way down the stream to a 26-24, 25-20 victory over host Stevenson.
"I'm super happy about this start:" said Brookbank, who put down a match-high 8 kills. "I had high hopes going into this season. We wanted to start out strong for a good season. I thought everyone was impressive for us.
"I just think we had more energy. When we got into a bad run, we kind of stayed up and that was a big part of this win, just keeping a positive mindset."
Sophomore Kalyn Brookbank put down the final kill of the night securing the win. It was her fourth kill, matching classmate Whitney Mall, who also had a block.
That trio was taking its cues from junior Jaelyn Connole (11 assists) and sophomore Eve Adler (6 assists). Senior Alex Pelletiere contributed a pair of blocks for the Fillies, who returned only Addie Brookbank and Mall as starters from last year's 35-8 team.
Stevenson, which was 31-8 last season, gained its first lead in Set 1 at 14-13. The Pats went ahead 19-15 on an ace by Bethany Payawal but Barrington stormed back and took a 21-20 advantage on a kill by Connole.
The set was tied at 23 and 24 before Connole made a terrific diving save near the net to keep the ball alive and the rally ended with Mall's block to make it 25-24. Kalyn Brookbank proceeded to end the first set as well with a kill.
"I'm super proud of our girls," said Fillies coach Michelle Mayer. "We did some things we have not been doing well in practice, like hitting out of the system and digging. They upped their game in those aspects. Obviously, they've got work to do in serving and staying out of the net. But those are things they can fix. I'm proud of them."
Stevenson was led by Illinois-bound Ava Wysocki (6 kills) and sophomore left side hitter Abby Inman (5 kills, 9 digs).
"I thought Abby (played on freshman A team last fall) did a great job," said Pats veteran coach Tim Crow. "She looked pretty confident and poised in the front and back rows."
Barrington pulled away to a 22-16 cushion in Game 2 with back-to-back aces from Connole. The Pats got within 22-20 before Barrington wrapped it up on kills from Mall, Addie Brookbank and Kalyn Brookbank.
"Obviously Barrington is a great program and their kids did what they needed to do to win," Crow said.
Payawal chipped in 5 digs for the hosts while the Pats' offense received 9 assists apiece from senior Juun Shin and sophomore Ryler Bondad, who played libero last fall and collected 3 digs on Wednesday.
"There were typical first-match jitters," Crow added. "We really have only two girls with any kind of varsity experience (Wysocki and Bondad). So everyone is nervous and the same with Barrington which has a lot of new kids. We take it for what it is. We have practice (Thursday) and then we move on to Friday and Saturday in the Lake Country tournament where I'm pretty sure the girls will respond better.
"We had certain kids who played well in the first set and not that great in the second, and vice versa. So it was just kind of up and down and inconsistent. But that's what you would kind of expect with our lack of experience."