Barrington hangs on against Carmel

Barrington’s girls volleyball team hasn’t raised a regional plaque in the last six years, but they believe this is the kind of team that can get the job done.

Not that it will be easy.

Eighth-seeded Barrington outlasted No. 9 Carmel 25-21, 27-25 in Class 4A regional semifinal play at Lake Forest on Tuesday.

The Fillies (22-14) next meet up with top seed Stevenson at 6 p.m. Thursday in the regional final. The Patriots got past host Lake Forest 25-22 and 25-15 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

“We want to win so bad,” said Barrington outside hitter Lauren Shectman. “We want to create our own legacy. We want to win regionals this year. We haven’t done it in a long time. It’s been our goal all year to win a regional.

“It’s all about working hard and working as a team — being totally unselfish, being a teammate.”

Shectman (5 kills, 13 digs) helped the Fillies rally with a kill and followed up with a service ace that tied the second game at 23-23.

“It definitely changed our momentum and we got so pumped up,” Shectman said. “Toward the end of the year, we’ve come together as a team. If we made an error, the rest of the team is here for me and we go on to the next play.”

The Fillies stuck together, which was key in this back-and-forth matchup with Carmel (21-17). Claire Walicek finished the game and match with a kill into an open corner in the second set.

“We spent so much time on defense the last two weeks,” Barrington coach Rob Ridenour said. “Game two showed a lot of heart, and we kept hitting. Not the prettiest plays in the world, but we kept giving ourselves chances, and that was the difference.”

Julia Thompson led the Fillies with 9 kills and 14 digs. Other key contributions came from Christy Roney (8 kills), Emily Casaletto (17 digs) and Waliczek (18 assists).

Carmel started out in the opening game with 11 unforced errors. The Corsairs tried to recover and tied it at 16-16 before Barrington pulled away.

“The second game was a lot cleaner,” Carmel coach David Pazely said. “We just let them come back. (Barrington) got the momentum and never lost it. We fought for a while, but it was a disappointing loss.

“We started a number of underclassman. There’s a lot of inexperience, and it showed with the pressure. Maybe we can use this as a stepping stone for next year.”

Gracie Schofield led the Corsairs with 11 kills. Caitlin Berry had 9 kills, Alyssa Armada had 18 digs and Shauna Meagher added 14 digs.