Girls volleyball: Barrington savors Jakubowski's first MSL crown

For Barrington's girls volleyball team, it wasn't exactly the start you dream about.

But the ending was one only a full team could experience over the past two decades of Mid-Suburban League championships.

Fillies coach Michelle Jakubowski used both of her time outs in the first five minutes of Set 1 as the Fillies fell behind 8-0 at Buffalo Grove, which was making its first appearance in the title match since 1976.

Slowly but surely, though, the Mid-Suburban West co-champs worked their way back into the set and eventually came back to stun the MSL East co-champs en route to 25-22, 23-25, 25-21 triumph in the 46th annual showcase event.

"Nothing like using your two time outs at 8-0," said Jakubowski, Barrington's fifth-year coach who was able to celebrate her first conference championship in 23 seasons as a head coach (also at Lake Zurich, Huntley and Winnebago high schools). "The kids played with such poise and patience today. You wouldn't have know if they were up by 20 and or down by 20. They had a great level feeling."

MSL West Player of the Year Peyton Tilly was feeling it on the offensive end, putting down a match-high 18 kills. Bailey Madrzyk added 9 followed by Noelle Daehler (7), Ola Magieri (7) and Paige Ramel (4).

"I know Peyton had 18 kills, but everyone else had 7 or 8 and there are not too many teams who can distribute the ball like that at high school level, and to the middles, too," Jakubowski said. "It was a really nice team effort. I'm so proud of them to battle and fight the way they did."

A kill by Tilly gave Barrington a 19-17 lead in Set 1. It was 22-22 when Daehler put down a kill, followed by a BG hitting error and Magiera's set-winning kill.

"It's crazy," Tilly said about the comeback. "In the third set, we said don't worry about the second and just play our game. This is a great way to end my high school career."

"This was a huge goal," said Fillies senior libero Mia Ruffolo, who had 15 digs. "We originally had our goal as MSL West. We came here and everyone was really clicking on the same page. This success is overwhelming and we haven't even started the postseason."

A kill by sophomore Shannon Coglianese (9 kills) gave BG a 24-22 lead in Set 2 and moments later the sophomore belted another kill the set winner.,

Set 3 was dramatic start to finish. It was tied at 19 and 20 before the visitors gained the lead for good on a BG hitting error and ace by Lauren Carder to make it 22-20.

A kill by MSL East Player of the Year Claire Ferriss made it 23-21 but Barrington wrapped it up on Tilly's kill of a diving back row defender and Magiera's kill from a 15- foot set by Tara Kozak (26 assists). Teammate Sabrina Loutos added 14 assists.

Ferriss led BG with 16 kills while setter Maggie Streckert recorded 31 assists, 3 blocks and 4 kills. Lauren Horvath added 3 kills and Abby Kim had 2.

"It was a hard-fought match on both sides," Ferriss said. "They were getting a lot of strong hits and we weren't able to pick them up at times. It's crazy that we got to play in this match. We just believed we could be here and we fought as hard as we could. We knew we belonged."

"I'm really proud of the girls," said BG coach Matt Priban. "You could see they left it all out there. They played awesome and Barrington played a real great match as well. Their attack was great. We struggled to adjust our block a little so we'll work on this things as we move on to the postseason.

"I can't say enough about our girls. They've been awesome all season and they did an awesome job tonight."