Fillies Volleyball Team Wins Conference Championship

When Barrington faced off against Hersey for the MSL Championship on Thursday, Oct. 21, both teams entered the match 10-0 in division play. Only Barrington was forced to play a third set (against Schaumburg on Senior Night) during conference play, so it was a bit of a surprise when Barrington captured the conference crown in straight sets (25-21, 25-22).

“Error, error, error,” Hersey coach Nancy Lill said of the team’s 15 hitting mistakes.  “This was one of (our) worst matches (we played) all year.”

Barrington (26-7) capitalized on the unforced errors and jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead in match one.  The Fillies would reach a double digit lead later in the match behind senior Olivia Szuszkiewicz’s 3 kills.  

“We didn’t want to let (Hersey) back into (the game),” said Szuszkiewicz, player of the year for the MSL West conference. “We knew we had to keep going for points, keeping the pressure on them.”

The 5’8 outside hitter would end the night with two blocks, 5 digs 3 aces and 8 kills in an all around complete game.

“Olivia does everything for us,” Fillies first year coach Rob Ridenour said. ”She’s probably our second-best server, our best defensive player and one of our best offensive players.”

Trailing 18-8, the Huskies (25-5) would quickly climb back into the match showing the resiliency that helped win last year’s conference championship and went on a 13-6 run that pulled them to 24-21. 

Barrington’s junior outside hitter Payton Lang would end Hersey’s game one comeback attempt, and building momentum, with a kill.  Lang, one of nine all-conference players in the contest, would end the match leading all attackers with 9 kills.

“To be honest, I was more relieved than anything else when we closed out game one because (Hersey) was charging pretty fast,” Ridenour said. “It’s just a testament to how confident these girls are that they started game two great.”

Barrington, who didn’t trail in either set, found themselves tied twice in the early stages of match two (once at 1-1 and the second time at 4-4), but would string together a 10-4 run to help put some distance between the two MSL teams.  However, the Huskies, appearing in their ninth consecutive conference title game, found away to climb back into the contest behind their co-players of the year for the MSL East: seniors Kristin Pedersen (3 kills and 3 blocks) and Kelsey Haas (5 kills).

Haas would have a kill late in the second match that cut Barrington’s lead to 24-21 and a net violation by the Fillies would push the score to 24-22 but another all-conference player from Barrington, senior Lauren Dunseith would help put the finishing touches on the match with her 6th kill.  Dunseith also added 7 digs.

Barrington’s other all-conference players Lauren Shectman (24 assists) and Julia Thompson (4 kills) helped the Fillies win their first MSL crown since 2006 and their seventh in 12 years.

“Give Barrington all the credit, they were definitely the better team tonight,” said Lill. “They came out ready to go; they came after us; and they played consistent volleyball.”

Barrington will hope to carry some of their momentum into their next match will be part of the IHSA 4A Dundee-Crown regional on Tuesday, Oct 25.  The Fillies will face Jacobs at 6:30 p.m.