Boys volleyball: Hartley, Barrington tip Conant in 3
It may have been stormy outside, but Barrington had the lightning going for it on the inside.
Led by Pepperdine commit Cole Hartley, Barrington crashed its way to a 25-14, 22-25, 25-18 win over Conant Tuesday in Hoffman Estates. It was the opening match for both teams in the MSL West.
"We are very talented," Barrington coach Charlie Spry said. "But I think it is a lot of guys who are trying to figure out what pieces go together and where they fit in the system."
With the 6-foot-11 Hartley holding down the middle of the court, Barrington (5-1, 1-0) got off to a terrific start in the match.
"We had some trouble at times getting around their blocks," said Hartley, who is a junior and had 10 kills and two aces.
"We did put the ball down at times. They are a very good team and we were glad to beat them."
Hartley got solid help form Eli Rodda, Quinn Kozak, Gavin Rohlwing and Evan Jackson as the Broncos ran away from a 12-10 lead. Barrington scored six unanswered points and cruised home for the first set win 25-14.
Conant (4-2, 0-1) was able to rain down on Barrington in the second set.
The Cougars were able to neutralize the Broncos' huge front line thanks to the play of Jacob Pietraszek, Michael Renko and freshman Nick Gutka. Conant was also able to also take advantage of six service errors by Barrington.
"We are a momentum team," Spry said. "You can feel the shift going. And when that happens, it affects the service line. We have to push ourselves in practice especially with our serving."
Barrington found its serves in the final set.
The Broncos had an ace from John Sun and a pair of aces from Hartke as the Broncos galloped to an 11-3 lead.
Trailing 19-11, Conant rallied behind Recko and Pietraszek to cut the deficit to 21-17. Barrington then closed out the game with kills by Rodda and Marc Gryzlo.
"We just lose focus sometimes," said Rohlwing, who had five kills.
"As a team, we would like to take our opponents out in two sets. But we are still happy to head home with the win."
Rodda had six kills and Kozak five kills. Carsten Weigh, who returned from a thumb injury, had 16 assists and Adrian Wu 15 assists.
Pietraszek led Conant with 12 kills, Recko had seven kills and Gutka had four kills.
"We just had a few too many unforced errors there," Conant coach Drewann Pancrabtz said. "Whether it was serving or just silly mistakes. We did compete and show how good we can be. We tried to build our momentum by talking and communicating better. And we did that at times."