Girls volleyball: Barrington stuns Stevenson with closing 5-0 run to win sectional title

Barrington's girls volleyball team advanced to the Elite Eight for the third straight time and it took one of the Fillie's most elite comebacks of all time to get there.

A kill by Stevenson's Brynn Smith put No. 2 seeded Stevenson ahead of the No. 1 Fillies 23-20 in the third set of the Class 4A Hoffman Estates sectional final on Wednesday night.

Despite the pressure, the Mid-Suburban League champions scored the match's final 5 points to advance to their own supersectional at 6 p.m. on Friday with a 26-24, 18-25, 25-23 triumph.

Senior Hope Regas, a Grand Canyon (Ariz.) pledge, put down 3 of her career-high 14 kills to ignite the late surge. Her final one made it 24-23 before an error ended the match and sent the Fillies (34-5) back home Friday to face Huntley sectional champion Libertyville (30-9).

"I was thinking stay calm, play on, visualize where you want to hit and just give it your all," Regas said about the huge comeback she sparked. "It was so fun to play. We're so excited to be going back to our home floor, we can't believe it."

Regas' unbelievable performance also included a pair of blocks which gave Barrington an 11-9 lead in Set 1.

"She (Regas) played phenomenal." said Seton Hall recruit Gwen Adler, who stuck her arm out for a pass and made it into a phenomenal assist late in the match. "Coach J (Michelle Jakubowski) alway says pressure is a privilege. We've been in this situation so many times and to come out on top and do this in our senior year is surreal. To be honest, the ending is a kind of a blur."

The start was also a pressure-packed finish for the Fillies, who trailed 23-19 in Set 1 after an ace by Krya Costabile.

But Barrington got big blocks from Jenna Meitzler (5 kills, 5 assists) and Molly O'Riordan (2 kills, 1 block) to tie it at 23.

Mija Jegers' kill tied the set at 24 before Barrington won it when Adler set O'Riordan for a kill and then the senior setter ended the set with a nifty second-attack kill.

"This group (back-to-back Class 4A third-place finishes) plays so hard and we've played together for so long we don't want any match to be our last until the absolute last one," said Adler, who handed out a match-high 27 assists. "We pulled it together at the end and picked each other up when we needed to. I'm just so proud of everyone."

"We had to step up because not everyone had their best game today," Jakubowski said. "But that's what this team is about. Hope played awesome. She stepped up. I've been on my pins this season because, you know, it's a pin game. I thought Hope did an absolutely amazing job and I thought Whitney (Mall who had 8 kills) did a really nice job."

Stevenson did a nice job in the second set.

The Pats broke a 6-6 tie with back-to-back kills by Cayla Weisner (4 blocks) and a kill from Ava Wysocki, who finished with 12 kills and 2 blocks.

Back-to-back kills from Jegers gave the Pats a 17-11 lead in the set, their largest until Adiana Voshtina's kill ended the set at 25-18.

Jegers led the Pats (31-8) with 13 kills and 14 digs while Smith finished with 11 kills and 8 digs.

"We just made a few unfortunate errors at the end," said the Northeastern-bound Smith. "I thought this was a great showing of how we can play, It wasn't six individual performances. It was six players on the court all playing together. We showed that we wanted it and came into the match believing that we were going to win. I'm just really proud of us for this entire season."

Voshtina (3 kills, 3 blocks), Alice Birtig (18 digs, 2 assists), Rachel Shin (12 assists, 4 digs) and Kyra Costabile (22 assists, 6 aces) were among other leaders for Stevenson.

"It was a great match," said Stevenson coach Tim Crow. "We should have finished that first set, and then obviously the third set. We just made some errors there at the end that put us in a bad spot. They did a great job serving us tough even when they were down 23-20. They were playing aggressively and we really weren't when we needed to finish.

"We had a great season and I really appreciate these girls. We graduate 10 seniors and we are not going to be able to replace them at all based on what they've done and accomplished through their years in the program.

"We had a good shot here to move on to the supers and then Barrington ended up taking it. Congratulations to them."

Molly Kozak produced 17 digs for the winners while Sarah Jensen had 9. Mia Modugno served for 14 points with 3 aces.

"It's great to go to our home floor where we get to play an amazing Libertyville team," Jakubowski said. "It's great for our seniors to be on their home floor for the last time in their careers. This is where they wanted to be. Three straight Elite Eights is pretty impressive for this group."

Just like their elite finish was on Wednesday night.