Girls volleyball: Barrington leaves little doubt in beating Hersey for MSL title

Moments after winning the 49th Mid-Suburban League girls volleyball championship match 25-16, 25-20 on Thursday night at Hersey, Barrington coach Michelle Jakubowski was thinking about next year.

Make that, this fall.

"We told the kids, you know what?," said the Fillies' coach of the past seven seasons. "We said 'you have the chance to become the only team (in Mid-Suburban League history) to win two conference championships in one year'. You never know what can happen. But at least we have the opportunity to try and do it."

The Fillies (14-2, 10-0) did it for the 13th time in program history on Thursday, and with only three senior starters.

One of those is Felicia Guagliardo, whose big second attack kill sparked the Fillies' big rally from a 17-11 deficit in Set 2.

"I think the fact that we came to work hard every single day despite the pandemic was amazing,"' said the 5-foot-9 setter. "I'm so grateful with COVID and everything that we were able to have this chance. It was fun playing with all these girls. Having everyone together was amazing."

Jakubowski, whose 2018 team also won the title over Buffalo Grove, said the senior leadership (Christina Copertino, Amelia Sigaev, Lillian Moews, Colleen Carroll and Jacquelyn Albrecht and Guagliardo) was invaluable.

"Just great team chemistry," she said. "We always talk about leaving this place better than when you came in and our senior leadership and work ethic allowed us to do that. We have big shoes to fill but we have some young ones who can do it. I'm super excited for next season. It's just three months away. This is our state championship today. Maybe next fall we can talk about another type of one."

Talk about a young attack. Sophomore Jessica Horwath led the Fillies with 7 kills, followed by freshman Jenna Meitzler (5 kills, 3 aces) and sophomore Campbell Paris (2). Sigaev handed out 8 assists with 3 aces while junior Breana Dunn had 3 blocks. Sophomore Colette Garrels added 2 aces and 8 points and junior Amanda Cleary had 9 digs.

Freshman Lily Pagan (5 aces) served Hersey from an 11-9 deficit to a 17-11 lead to excite the home crowd in Set 2.

"That was huge," said Hersey hall of fame coach Nancy Lill. "She had nerves of steel."

But Barrington responded with three straight points from Cleary.

"I thought we did a nice job going back and serving aggressively," Jakubowski said. "We did a nice job just chipping away at the deficit."

The set was tied at 20 when Barrington closed with a 5-0, getting 4 straight points from Garrels to end it on a kill by Meitzler.

"Our freshman (Pagan) had a wicked serve to get us the lead (in Set 2) lead," said senior Victoria Babinski. who led Hersey with 6 kills. "Our energy was through the roof at that point. Then we kind of fell apart and they had some wicked serving, too."

Allie Korba handed out 11 assists for Hersey (9-3, 9-1) while Alexa Knutson and Lauren Lubbe each had 2 kills. Maddie Mullin collected 9 digs while Ellie Muglia served 2 aces.

"It was tough," Lill added. "We played with heavy hearts due to the death of a close family member of one of our players. To play under those circumstances is almost too hard to do. I'm proud of the effort the girls gave and how they left it all on the floor. Our seniors were phenomenal and the youngsters came up strong.

"I thought we had them in the second set but we made too many errors. Give Barrington credit. They're a really tall team and their block affected us. We were out of system a lot and that makes it hard to pass. We became too predictable. It was a great season and I'm so glad we had one. It was memorable for sure."