Girls volleyball: Barrington edges Buffalo Grove in 3, advances to MSL title match
On the same day Barrington girls volleyball coach Michelle Mayer celebrated her birthday last Thursday, the Fillies earned their cake by winning a Mid-Suburban League East first-place showdown at Fremd.
On Tuesday night, the Fillies got the icing on the cake when they defeated host Buffalo Grove 23-25, 28-26, 25-13 to secure a spot in the MSL title game for the fifth time under Mayer since 2018.
But this one was hardly a piece of cake for the Fillies in the MSL East match.
They were 1 point away from defeat when Kalyn Brookbank put down the clutch kill to tie the second set at 24.
The visitors went ahead 25-24 on hitting error before the Bison held off set point with a tip kill from senior Cameron Damm.
A service point from sophomore Olivia Hill got the Bison back to another set point before Brookbank came through again with a blast that tied it at 26.
Fillies junior Eve Adler, who collected a match-high 34 assists, seven shy of her career-best 41 against Hersey, then served the final two points, one on a hitting error and the winner on a block by senior Ingrid Wright.
Barrington finally found some breathing room in the final set, racing to a 7-2 lead and never looking back. The Fillies took advantage of a big 9-point service run from Brookbank which included 4 aces.
Getting her cues all night with an array of sets from Adler, Brookbank finished with a match-high 19 kills, 2 shy of her season-best 21.
"She has a good swing," Adler said of her 6-foot-1 classmate. "This was a close match. The whole season we've had a lot of three-set matches and this one we needed to win to get to the MSL championship game so we really wanted to come out and earn that third set."
The Fillies (18-10, 8-1) will visit Palatine (22-4, 9-0) for the MSL crown a week from Thursday.
"We secured the title match berth and I'm so proud of their fight," Mayer said. "It's our 16th or 17th three-set match and these girls grind. It's not always pretty but we do grind."
Trailing 10-8 in the second set, Mayer called her second timeout.
"I just told them it was on them, show me what you've got," Mayer said. "And they did. Then showed me everything they had. Kaelyn went on that serving run. I'm proud of them. They never give up and never stop believing. It can be incredibly bad and then it goes incredibly amazing."
The Fillies also received 7 kills from Lexi Szlezak, 5 from Jaelyn Connole and 4 from Alessandra Mirkovich. Libero Ella Krull had 5 digs and 3 assists.
Suffice it to say, the Bison came out of the match with plenty of confidence, knowing they almost defeated the top 2 seeds (handed No. 2 and 24-7 Fremd a loss on Sept. 25) in their own sectional.
"That's what we talked about in the huddle (after the match)," said BG coach Tara Braceros. "We've been working really hard on being able to compete at this high level and tonight is proof that we can do that. So it's back into the gym and preparing."
The Bison showed they meant business in the first set, rallying from a 16-13 deficit for a 16-16 tie. The set was then tied at point 17 to 21 when BG took command for good on back-to-back aces by Alex Tohter making it 23-21. Brookbank's kill got the Fillies to within 24-23 before Hall put down the set winner.
Tohter, a sophomore setter, collected 24 assists with 1 ace, 2 digs and 2 kills for the Bison (12-14, 4-5) while senior Tetiana Kutsyk put down 8 kills with 2 aces.
"I think Alex has been doing an incredible job, dictating and running our offense," Braceros added. "She is more confident. She is telling everyone what to do. It's also a game changer having Tetiana back. She has been out for a while with an injury. So to have both of my outside hitters (Amelia Palubski had 6 kills) back and healthy is huge for us."