Boys volleyball: Barrington sweeps pair of pool-play matches
Normalcy.
It's something that spring high sports in the state of Illinois are experiencing this season after the COVID-19 pandemic scrapped it all together two years ago and imposing a six-week starting delay in its return last season due to a massive undertaking by the Illinois High School Association to fulfill interscholastic competition for all of its sports last year.
In applying it to this year's boys volleyball campaign, Prospect coach Mike Riedy spoke of how some basic things were taken for granted that we're missed those last couple of seasons.
"We were missing that little social element," Riedy said. "There are simple things like it's easier to hear me when I'm yelling. It's easier for them to breathe (without masks). Seeing the reactions on their faces when they do amazing things. I think that little stuff gets forgotten about."
Also passed over were early-season invitationals like the 16-team Barrington-Vernon Hills Tournament that made its return after that same two-year absence Friday evening with the Broncos hosting one four-team pool featuring them along with the Knights, Brother Rice and Warren while the other 12 schools commenced at the other host site in three more pools.
Barrington would get down to business in its pool with two solid wins over Prospect (25-14 and 25-16) and the Crusaders (25-12 and 25-22) to give new coach Charlie Spry a 2-0 start.
"We are firing on all cylinders right now, (but) we've got a long way to go as far as what we want to do and what we want to achieve," Spry said. "Still, there was a lot of improvement that I saw. Happy start, but hopefully we'll get better."
Leading the way for Barrington was Ohio State recruit Jack O'Riordan (7 kills, 1 block) in the opening win over the Knights.
"Feels great," O'Riordan said. "Things are normal. We're having a pretty good start."
Fellow Bronco teammate Alex Zastawny added 5 more kills and an assist in the win as Barrington (2-0) will look to complete an undefeated mark in its pool when they face Warren (1-3) at Vernon Hills Saturday morning.
The Knights (1-1) bounced back from their opening defeat to grind out a 2-0 win (25-16 and 25-19) over the Blue Devils.
Riedy felt that his young squad which has only one returnee from last season learned from their first game in pool play.
"Once they got that out of their system they were able to play some Prospect volleyball and got a little more comfortable on the floor and things worked out."
Junior middle hitter Will Klimek (4 Kills, 4 Aces, 2 Blocks) stressed team unity as a major contributor in their bounce back win.
"I'm close to every single one of these guys," Klimek said. "We stick together and that's all that counts."
Prospect will face Brother Rice in their final pool match Saturday morning. The Crusaders (2-2) beat Warren in a 2-0 decision (25-14 and 25-18) in their opening tilt.