Boys volleyball: Barrington bounces back, knocks off Fremd

After Barrington's boys volleyball team earned a hard-fought 25-22, 25-17 win at Fremd Wednesday evening, their coach Charlie Spry wasn't in a mood to celebrate.

Instead, he huddled with his team shortly after the match's conclusion to discuss with them what must be done to not only stay in the hunt in the Mid-Suburban West but beyond that after rebounding from a MSL West loss to Schaumburg a day earlier.

"I'm not taking anything away from Fremd. They (again) played us really well. Every team is going to play well against us. We have a target on our backs," Spry said.

"That's the struggle. We did the same thing yesterday (where) we didn't play our best and we come out today pretty flat again. It's the thing I said to them if you want to be a top level team you got to do it all the time. That's why we're going to start changing some things in practice and we're going to solve that."

With Barrington (9-3, 4-1) ahead 22-21 in the opener, sophomore outside hitter Matt Kravstov blasted one of 8 game one kills followed by a service ace that led to a game-winning kill from his junior OH teammate Dennis Kukovski.

In set two, which may be the point of Spry's concern, the Vikings (6-8, 1-4) rallied from an early 9-1 deficit by going on an 11-3 tear to even things at 12. Then another one of Kravstov's game-high 14 kills kick-started the decisive 13-5 surge to settle matters as Kukovski (3 kills, 2 digs, ace) had one of each to get the win for the Broncos.

Kravstov (3 aces) talked of his team's commitment to returning to basics after their Tuesday loss.

"We talked a lot as a team (after) we lost and we decided we wanted to focus on our energy, our effort, and our communication and it really showed,“ Kravstov said. ”Obviously, they came back against us, but towards the end we had a pretty good resolve today. I'm proud of the guys."

Six-foot-2 junior outside hitter Chase Hinojosa led the Fremd effort with 6 kills and an ace and block followed by seniors Fred Worst (3 blocks, kill) and Sarem Khan (3 blocks).

Vikings coach Tracy Harding had plenty to be proud of her squad in their effort.

"These kids work so hard for each other and anything I ask them to do, they'll try it and you don't get that (always) as a coach,“ Harding said. ”I'm really grateful for this group."