Girls volleyball: Barrington’s big finish topples Hersey
Coming off a 5-0 run through the Jacobs tournament over the weekend, Barrington's girls volleyball team wanted to pick up where it left off.
The Fillies did exactly that — especially in the third set Tuesday night against visiting Hersey.
Nursing a 6-5 lead in the decisive set, the Fillies (9-3) closed out with a 19-6 run in its home opener to post a 19-25, 25-15, 25-11 triumph over defending Mid-Suburban League East champ Hersey (3-6).
"That's how we can play, that is who we are," said Fillies coach Michele Mayer of her team's windup to the MSL crossover. "I'm proud of them. That's how we played at Jacobs — transition, dig, set , hit, dig, set, hit. Serving aggressive, touching blocks.
"But there are going to be times when we're going to see that other team in us intermixed. I think we have to figure out our pregame ritual about what we are doing and being a little more focused. We'll figure that out and then just keep chugging along. I'm proud of them."
During the big charge to close out the match, sophomore Eve Adler served 6 straight points for an 18-8 lead. The rally included 3 kills from senior Addie Brookbank who led the hosts with 15 kills and 8 digs. Adler (14 assists) also served an ace.
Senior Whitney Mall had back-to-back kills to make it 23-10 before junior Jaelyn Connole served for the final point and also got the assist on a set to sophomore Kalyn Brookbank (5 kills) for the match-winner.
"Something just clicked," said Connole (10 assists, 5 kills) of the big finish. "We were kind of not playing our usual game at the start and realized we just needed to tune in and do what we know how to do. We just wanted to defend our home court."
Mall finished with 8 kills.
"I just wanted to protect our gym," she said. "I just wanted to win those last couple of points. I knew we should have won that first set so I wanted to push faster and be more aggressive in the second and third sets."
Senior Alex Pelletiere had 3 blocks for the defending MSL champs and sophomore teammate Alessandra Mirkovick added 2.
Hersey's Victoria Dubowski put down a kill to make it 4-1 in Set 1 and the Huskies would never trail again.
A kill by Victoria Sulewski made it 17-13, forcing a Barrington timeout. Ola Wydmanski's kill extended the lead to 21-15.
"I thought Ola Wydmanski did a nice job in the middle with some real nice shots and a couple of nice blocks," said Hersey coach Laura Gerber. "Victoria Dubowski did a really nice job on defense and hitting. She really did everything she could."
Freya McBride served the Huskies to a 5-1 lead in the second set but Barrington rallied back behind 5 service points from junior libero Ella Krull (4 aces, 10 digs) to grab a 7-5 lead and never trailed again in the set.
"I am super proud of the girls for coming back and playing strong to control the set," Gerber added. "We kind of let up in the second set a little bit but that third one we struggled with serve-receive and we couldn't really play our offense because we couldn't get a pass.
"But I thought our girls did a really nice job. Barrington is a great team, super strong and way taller than we are. But I felt like we played really well. We served aggressively, had some nice blocks and a couple of good shots. We graduated 11 seniors so we have only two returning girls. It's nice to be able to move the ball around. We have hitters in every position and we just have to learn how to connect with everyone. But it's good and I'm really happy."