At Conant - October 11th

From The Daily Herald:

Fillies continue MSL division perfection

Barrington coach Kathleen Russell waited and waited for the Fillies to pull out of their deficit.

She held back from calling a timeout when they struggled and eventually fell in the second game to Conant. She continued to refrain from using a timeout when the Cougars took an early lead in Game 3.

It wasn’t until her patience had dwindled and Conant pulled ahead 18-13 that Russell decided enough was enough and called for time.

She pinpointed where the mistakes were being made, put senior captain Chelsea Nagle back in and sent the Fillies out to the court.

It was just what Barrington needed as it rallied to win the third game and complete its fifth straight undefeated MSL West season. The Fillies defeated Conant 25-23, 23-25, 25-23 for their 56th straight division win.

Barrington (16-8, 10-0) will host Hersey on Oct. 19 for the MSL crown.

“I expect the girls to push themselves,” Russell said. “When I called timeout we needed to change some things up and slow them down.

“Conant was playing with a lot of adrenaline. You don’t want to beat anyone on their senior night, but we wanted to keep the conference streak going, so we had to win. It’s not important for me because it’s my first year, but it’s important to the school and the girls.”

It was in the back of Barrington junior Amy Raseman’s mind.

The Fillies were behind late in the third game and their hitting hadn’t found many holes.

When setter Lexi Zimmerman went to Raseman in that situation, she didn’t let her team down. Raseman, a 5-foot-11 lefty, smashed a shot past Conant’s defense to pull Barrington within 19-15.

Zimmerman went back to Raseman on the following two plays. Each had the same result against the Cougars (16-12, 5-5).

Raseman (10 kills) would add another kill to tie the match at 21-21. “We struggled a lot more than we had hoped to,” Raseman said. “But it was a good, intense match to end conference.”