Girls volleyball: Barrington takes down Glenbrook South; Fremd up next
Barrington junior Jessica Horwath says that Fillies coach Michelle Jakubowski has a mantra that she tries to instill in her team.
“Coach always says 'one more bus ride, one more practice, one more game,' ” said the outside hitter. “Just keep extending the time we have together. We have really great chemistry, and as a team we want to stay together as long as possible.”
Jakubowski's refrain never had more meaning than on Wednesday night, as Barrington extended the season all the way to supersectionals by defeating Glenbrook South 25-21, 25-18 on the Titans' home court, in front of a packed house, to win a Class 4A sectional title.
The Fillies move on to the Elite Eight, where they'll play Mid-Suburban West rival Fremd Friday at 7 p.m. in Lake Zurich. The Vikings won in 3 sets Wednesday over New Trier.
It's Barrington's first sectional title since 2006 and its first under Jakubowski, now in her eighth season at the helm.
“This is amazing,” added Horwath of the victory. “We hadn't even won a regional since 2006, and we knew after that regional championship win (over Libertyville) we just had to keep going and keep going.
“We need to show everyone our potential, and how far we can go. When we're playing our best, we're one of the best teams in the state.”
Glenbrook South held leads in both sets, but fell victim to the hitting of Horwath and 6-foot-5 junior Campbell Paris.
It was the final game for Titans' seniors Taylor Knuth and Amanda Souter.
“They're amazing,” said Glenbrook South coach Kelly Dorn of Knuth and Souter. “Their leadership showed. They took us on their backs the whole season. Tonight, they fought from the beginning to the end.”
Barrington trailed midway through the opening set, but took the lead for good at 14-13 when Jenna Meitzler and Paris shared a block kill.
The Fillies won the first set on an error at the net by Glenbrook South, but the Titans raced to a 4-1 lead in Set 2.
And just when it looked like Glenbrook South was about to extend the advantage to 5-1 by putting the ball down, Meitzler came up with an amazing, athletic dig to keep the ball off the floor.
A kill from Horwath followed. She then stroked 2 more kills, and sophomore Gwen Adler served up an ace to give Barrington the lead.
“Jenna is amazing,” said Horwath of Meitzler. “She does everything for us. She sets, she hits, she digs, and she's one of our best servers too. We know we can always rely on her and that she's always going to be there whether she's setting or an option for hitting.
“She's a great blocker too. Jenna really does the little things that the other team is not expecting, that helps us get the momentum back.”
Barrington brought the deciding set lead to 23-18 on a kill from Berkeley Ploder in the middle, then Megan Berquist had a clutch block and Meitzler surprised the Titans' defense and closed out the match with a dump kill.
“We stayed with our game plan,” said Jakubowski. “Glenbrook South has great players, they got a lot of kills against us but we just played side out ball. Just pushed ahead when we needed to.
“I don't think I had to call a time out the entire match. The kids do a really good job of taking care of adversity by themselves. They believe in each other, and I know whether we're up or down they're going to play the same way.”
Horwath led the way on attack for the Fillies with 12 kills, while Adler finished with 15 assists.
“Tonight we wanted to side out fast,” said Horwath. “We didn't want them (Glenbrook South) to get the energy. They had a big crowd, and we had a big crowd. We needed to have a strong start, use every ball we had on our side, and put the ball away instead of keeping the rally going.”