Girls volleyball: Barrington downs Fremd in key MSL match
For the past eight Mid-Suburban League girls volleyball seasons, Fremd or Barrington has played for a championship.
On Thursday night in Palatine, Barrington put itself in the driver's seat in the Mid-Suburban East to keep that streak alive with a 25-23, 25-20 triumph at Fremd.
The Fillies (17-10, 7-1) took a one-match lead over Fremd (19-6, 6-2) with two to play.
"That's one of our goals for the season," said Barrington senior captain Jaelyn Connole about winning a division title. "We're really excited."
The Fillies had another goal in mind on Thursday, too.
It was Fillies' 12th-year coach Michelle Mayer's birthday.
"This is what she wished for (a win)," Connole said. "So we had to deliver for coach."
Connole delivered a stellar all-around match with 8 kills and 7 digs.
"I thought Jaelyn played absolutely incredible," Mayer said. "Jalyn is being a great leader for us. She is the captain of this team. And the difference in this match was the way we decided to play defense.“
Fremd coach Pete Gavin couldn't agree more.
"I thought they serve received very well, much better than the last time we saw them," Gavin said of Fremd’s 21-25, 25-22, 25-23 win at Barrington.
"They played very well. I thought they mixed up their offense nicely. So they're a team that's just getting better and we knew it was going to be a tough match."
Barrington started the match trailing by as many as 5 points — 11-6 after back-to-back aces from freshman Reese Wallace and later 13-8 after senior Emily Karmazin's kill off a set from Akshara Jay, who had 3 kills, 8 digs and 9 assists.
Barrington grabbed its first lead with Kayln Brookbank at the service line. Connole put down back-to-back kills to make it 17-16.
The set was tied at 17, 18, 20, 21 and 22 before an ace by libero Ella Krull (9 digs, 2 aces) gave Barrington a 23-22 lead and Fremd called its second timeout.
Jay's kill off a set from Madison Drenth (5 assists) tied it at 23 but the Fillies answered with back-to-back kills from Brookbank for the set win.
Brookbank ended up with a match-high 11 kills in a balanced offensive attack set by Eve Adler (27 assists, 7 digs).
"Kayln is always incredible," Mayer said. "But I thought our surrounding players all stepped up and did the job. I was just really proud of their energy and I thought we ran some unexpected things to our middles at the end. We served aggressively and missed a little too much but I was really proud of their energy which I felt was the difference from the first time we played them."
The Fillies started the second set with plenty of energy getting three straight points from server sophomore Kinley Shinhoster, including an ace and block by Alessandra Mirkovich (3 blocks, 3 kills) to put the Fillies ahead 5-1.
The set was tied at 13, 15 and 16 when Barrington nudged ahead for good on back-to-back kills from Brookbank and Lexi Szlezak (8 kills).
Fremd got to within 18-17 when Marcelina Cebula's kill ended the night's longest rally. But the visitors scored 7 of the next 10 points to win the match which ended on Connole setting Brookbank for her 11th kill.
"I let the girls determine what they needed to do in practice (on Wednesday) and they said they just wanted to hustle," Mayer said. "And I really think it came down to that. They just did a really nice job going after second touches and just throwing the ball back over and just being able to finish."
Gavin, whose team received 4 kills apiece from Harper Neill and Zoey Bending, 9 digs from Ella Castelloni and 4 assists from Kate Miller, told his girls he just wants to see them finish the season strong.
"After wins or losses, we just want to get better," he said. "We're looking for the playoffs and I told them I'm not a big believer that sometimes losses are good but I do think you can learn a lot from them and that's what I expect us to do and we're just going to keep working at getting better."