Boys volleyball: Nice MSL West start for Ridgway, Barrington

Ben Ridgway's first varsity Mid-Suburban West boys volleyball match was a highly successful one.

For both himself and his Barrington teammates.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore opposite, who was on JV as a freshman, helped lead the Broncos to a 25-16, 25-20 boys volleyball win over visiting Schaumburg in the opening divisional match of the season.

Ridgway hit 4 kills in the latter stages of the first set to help secure the victory.

Barrington improved to 9-3 overall, 1-0 in the West.

Despite the win Ridgway, who is following in his brother Jack's footsteps (Jack was a setter for Barrington), was not totally happy with his play Tuesday.

"I made a few more errors than I thought I would tonight, but my hitting was fine, and my blocking was all right," said the sophomore.

"We've got a great group of guys on the team this year," added Ridgway. "We have a lot of fun out there."

Junior Gabe Hartke was the offensive leader for the Broncos with 10 kills, while junior Ryan Regier came up with 8 for the Saxons.

Both teams excelled on defense as well, with Schaumburg libero Brian Kirschbaum earning a game-high 8 digs.

"I thought we had a lack of energy and didn't come out and play our game," said Kirschbaum.

Despite the loss, Schaumburg still stands at 5-2 overall, but 0-1 in the division.

"We kind of expected it (the fast start)," continued Kirschbaum. "We've got a lot of returning guys from last year."

For a while, it didn't look like Barrington would be able to put anything down against Schaumburg's staunch defense. It took the Broncos 6 tries to get the first point as the Saxons got dig after dig.

But strong play from the service line and an ace from senior Michael O'Toole, plus the stellar hitting of Hartke and Ridgway, helped Barrington close out the first set on an 8-1 run to take the lead.

Schaumburg was able to keep within striking distance in the second set, closing to within 11-9 midway through, when Saxons senior Nathan Thomas got a big kill.

Barrington then lengthened its advantage, but the Saxons didn't make it easy on the home team down the stretch.

Trailing 24-16, Schaumburg rallied to score 4 straight points, 2 of which came on kills from Matt Hoppesch and Robert Grasse.

But Barrington senior middle Petar Lumovic closed out the match by tipping the final ball to an open spot on the Schaumburg side of the net for the winning point.

Evan Carroll finished with 22 assists and 2 blocks for the Broncos.

"We've had a good start this season," said Barrington coach Rob Ridenour, "and we're trying to get better every day.

"I thought we did a nice job on offense tonight, but our first contact was a little sloppy. That's something we've got to improve on."

Thomas had 15 assists for the Saxons.

"I think our guys were engaged defensively and were ready to go," said Schaumburg coach Eric Melton. "Our libero (Kirschbaum) did a great job of putting himself in the right position and getting a lot of touches, and that helped us in transition.

"We were missing a couple of starters tonight and we had a couple of guys playing out of position, and that put us in a little different spot going in to the match. That's unfortunate, but I thought the guys defensively were able to keep us in the game."

Ridgway ended the night with 5 kills.

"We've got a really solid team this year," said the sophomore. "Our coach believes in us and we feel like we've got a great chance to contend to be state winners."