Boys volleyball: Schaumburg clinches MSL West, wins 16th straight
The Schaumburg boys volleyball team got the job done Tuesday night against short-handed Barrington as the Saxons clinched the Mid-Suburban League's West Division championship outright with their 16th win in a row.
Schaumburg (23-4, 9-1) rolled to a 25-14 victory in the first set before holding off the pesky Broncos for a 25-21 win in the second set to win the match. Barrington's record fell to 16-11 overall and 6-4 in the MSL West.
Just about everyone on the squad got into the act for the Saxons, including freshman standout Frankie Vincent, who had a match-high 11 kills. Schaumburg junior Aaron Shogren also had a big night with 27 assists and 8 digs.
"I felt like Aaron (Shogren) did a great job working with the middles and Frankie today and those are some of the things we've been trying to fix in practice," said Schaumburg coach Cory Griffin. "Dylan (Ogawa) played awesome today, and he kind of controls and sets the pace for the match. Frankie was strong as always, he's great. There's a part of the game that stats don't talk about where their attackers are trying to avoid Frankie's block, and we're allowed to play differently because of what he does."
Schaumburg senior Alex Noga had a strong match with 7 kills while junior Robert Jensen led Barrington with 6 kills. Senior Darius Voth had 11 assists for the Broncos and teammates Dennis Kukovski and Essa Rampurwala had 3 kills each. Schaumburg junior Charlie Mounts had 3 blocks.
"Obviously we played great, we had high energy, and we're really showing the work that we put in during practices and what it means to be a Saxon," said Vincent, who ended the match with his 11th kill. "We want to continue performing well, continue strengthening what we do in practice, and I think we can go all the way."
Trailing 22-18, Barrington made a late rally as two service points by Voth cut the lead to 22-21 to cap a 3-point run. But a kill by Vincent and two service points by junior Ryden Mollison closed out the win for the Saxons.
Schaumburg’s 6-foot-6 sophomore Payton Alfini showed some aggressive play at the net throughout the contest while Mollison had 2 kills midway through the second set to give Schaumburg a 15-10 lead. Sophomore Julian Vargas had 2 kills for the Broncos.
Barrington was playing without key injured junior Garrett Rohlwing and junior Matt Kravstov, who is playing on the under-19 national team in Canada.
"We're trying some new things, we're missing a number of guys, but Schaumburg is a very talented team," said Barrington coach Charlie Spry. "We were definitely not our normal self, and we definitely didn't play our best game. Frankie (Vincent) is a really talented player. I'm excited to see what he does."