Girls volleyball: Young, talented Barrington looking to make noise at state

The last time Barrington played in the IHSA state girls volleyball finals was 2006.

That veteran outfit, which placed fourth under coach Christopher Bronke, featured nine seniors.

The 2021 Fillies have just three seniors, including - Amanda Cleary, Bre Dunn and Laura Mahlum - but that didn't stop them from becoming the program's first team in 15 years to reach the state finals.

Barrington's youth movement (33-7) will face Metea Valley (38-2) in Friday's 8:30 p.m. Class 4A semifinal at Illinois State's Redbird Arena in Normal.

"To see that 2006 team had so many seniors and we have such a young class, I'm so excited to see what our team can do in the future," said Dunn, the Mid-Suburban League 300 hurdles champion who plans to run track in college and study in the medical science field. "And hopefully we can take gold this weekend."

"My goodness, this is the wildest ride we've had in my four years," said Cleary (team-high 401 digs), who will play beach volleyball at Missouri State. "Coming into this season I didn't really expect us to go to state. I expected us to do great things but it was just one step at a time, one match at a time. It's unreal to be here. It's a real privilege to say we are going downstate. It is believable because we work so hard and so well together. There is no doubt that we were capable of this. But I could never have dreamed of having the chance to go downstate."

Also going down state for the first time is Michelle Jakubowski (508-338 in 24 seasons), the Fillies' veteran eighth-year coach who has also been in charge at Winnebago (1996-2000), Lake Zurich (2000-2005) and Huntley (2006 to 2011) before arriving at Barrington.

Coincidentally, in her last year as Huntley's coach, Jakubowski's 2010 Red Raiders team defeated Barrington in the regional final. She then became athletic director at Huntley before leaving for Barrington two years later.

"It is full circle but it's awesome," said Jakubowski, whose daughter Taylor starred at Huntley and now plays for Seton Hall.

"I couldn't be in a better place with better kids."

Those 'kids' have been led on attack by junior Jessica Horwath (354 kills), junior Campbell Paris (292), sophomore Jenna Meitzler (133), sophomore Berkeley Ploder (60), sophomore Megan Bergquist (59) and Dunn (52).

Running the offense have been sophomore setters Gwen Adler (454 assists), Meitzler (342) and Bergquist (51). Dunn is also the team leader in blocks with 66 followed by Ploder with 45. Sophomore Sarah Jensen is the leader in aces with 51 followed by Meitzler (43) and Cleary (39).

"We are all striving to go far," Dunn said. "We are so goal-oriented and determined. We are really looking forward to this weekend. It's super amazing. I love the family we have here and I will definitely miss the girls here."

"It's definitely crazy that we have this much young talent and really not that much experience on varsity," Horwath said. "Even last year, we had a couple of senior setters and now we've got three sophomore setters who are basically running everything."

Everything came together by the end of the season for the Mid-Suburban West co-champions.

"I think our game was always to get better, enjoy what we were doing, be a family and see where it takes us," Jakubowski said. "And it just happened to take us to a great place."

A place where the Fillies have been eight other times.

Prior to the 2006 trip to Normal, the Fillies were also in the state finals four times under coach Maggie Atols Kehoe (1975-76-77-78) and three under coach Karen Traub (2000-02-03).

Traub's assistant those three years, Rachel Johnson, is in the same role for Jakubowski. The sister of Barrington's head football coach, Joe Sanchez, has been with the Fillies' volleyball program for 20 years.

Barrington has one fourth-place finish, one third and three runner-up finishes in its previous eight state tourney appearances.

As young as they are this fall, getting a ninth chance in the state's premier event is icing on the cake to an already stellar season.

"I think it is just a really great group," Jakubowski added. "They believe in each other, Even when they're down they believe they can come back. They take so much pride in what they do, from practice planning to team film. They really take a lot of pride in everything they do."

"I think this season we really just wanted to go out and play our best and just let the results be the results," said Horwath, who intends to play D-1 volleyball (considering on the sand). "We could only control what was on our side of the net. We got to play good competition throughout the season so I think that helped us.

"Having that experience of playing teams that did come back with a lot of seniors kind of showed us what we had to work on. Everyone has been able to pick up things quickly. We have a really good chemistry which helps us both on and off the court because we are able to communicate better with each other and make the changes we need during practices and games. We have total trust in everyone on and off the court."

Cleary also emphasized team chemistry.

"We probably work better off the court than on the court," she said. "Everyone is so positive. No one gets down on anyone which really helps out. It's a competitive atmosphere in that we want everyone to succeed but not where anyone puts herself ahead of someone else."

Jakubowski said her team had to put a rough stretch behind itself.

"Sometimes there are defining losses which make you determine what you have to do to change your mindset," she said. "I thought we did a nice job of adjusting after a big match with Fremd (37-3). We lost (in two sets) and it meant we wouldn't play for the conference championship. But that was a defining moment where we said we didn't want to be in that situation again and we wanted to play the last weekend of the season."

Mission accomplished.