Boys volleyball: Barrington survives Stevenson rally to win regional title in straight sets
Standing at 6-foot-5 and committed to Northern Kentucky, Barrington’s Sam Grozdic is a prototypical talented outside hitter.
His head coach Charlie Spry called him a “phenomenal volleyball player,” but added that Grozdic wouldn’t say the same. There’s no peak to the senior’s high-flying game. Instead, he’s always looking upward.
“He’s probably going to come over to me and say he didn’t play that well tonight,” Spry said. “I guarantee it. What I would say I’m incredibly proud of is he got served a ton of balls. He struggled at one point and refound it … It’s your ability to bounce back.”
Grozdic and the Barrington team (24-11) resonated such resilience in their straight-set victory over Stevenson (24-13) in the regional finals Thursday night at Vernon Hills High School. After nearly blowing an 11-point lead in the first set, the Broncos regained their composure to come out on top, 25-22, and followed the triumph with a 25-16 win to claim the title.
“It’s hard to seek perfection in volleyball because you’re bound to make mistakes,” Barrington senior Matt Louis said. “You’re not going to get a perfect pass. You’re not going to get a perfect set. You’re going to miss the ball sometimes. And to have such a perfectionist mindset, it’s tough to deal with sometimes.”
The Broncos didn’t look stressed for much of the first set, battling the Patriots in a back-and-forth affair through the first 10 points before jumping ahead via an 8-1 run to lead, 19-9. Louis, who is committed to MIT to study business and continue his volleyball career, scored on a spike and joined teammate Jimmy Lau in another kill during the span.
Barrington then cruised to a 24-11 advantage, its fans in the stands raising one finger to the sky, signifying the closeness of victory. But Stevenson, winners of five of its last six matchups, refused to back down, scoring 11 consecutive points. When Patriot juniors Zolbayar Munkhbat and Marcel Ryszkowski combined for a kill to cut the deficit to two, what looked to be an inevitable loss became a potential upset.
“It was just more complementary volleyball,” Stevenson coach Eric Goolish said of his squad’s resurgence. “Our front row and our back row, everybody working together … Once we got the run going, then you’re just playing and not thinking so much.”
While a kill from Grozdic ended the set, Stevenson’s response to adversity has been a pattern throughout the season. Goolish said the near comeback reminded him of an early-season tournament at Proviso East, when the Patriots took second place despite being down five of their 15 players.
“We’re constantly fighting to try to overcome obstacles,” Goolish said. “We’ve had numerous injuries, a really challenging schedule, and I think you could see that emulate itself at the end of set one, how we start fighting and clawing our way back in. It’s a really tough group.”
For Barrington, the lull was reminiscent of its regional semifinal matchup against Loyola Academy. The Broncos won the first set, but Louis said the team “backed off” in the second and allowed the Ramblers to tie the match.
“To come in the huddle and be, like, ‘We cannot take our foot off the gas. We have to come out strong in the second set,’” Louis said. “ I think it helped us keep the momentum we had before [Stevenson] went on the big run.”
Similar to the first, the Patriots stayed even in the beginning of the second before the Broncos pulled away, this time without a comeback scare. Barrington scored three straight points to take a 16-11 advantage and never looked back.
Senior Matthew Okladlo led the Patriots in kills with five, followed by junior Sresth Mohapatra with four, while senior Michael Kozuch topped the team with eight digs.
Barrington hosts Libertyville in a sectional matchup on Saturday.