Regional Semifinal vs. Fremd - October 26th

From The Daily Herald:

Tough battle to Barrington
Fillies hold off MSL West rival Fremd in three
By Kathy Rudolph

There’s a reason why most coaches don’t favor the IHSA’s preference of putting teams from the same conference in the same sectional complex.

Even though Barrington defeated Mid-Suburban West rival Fremd in both of their meetings this season, the third encounter was another hard-fought battle that eventually went Barrington’s way 25-22, 20-25, 25-21 in Wednesday’s semifinals of the Class AA Rolling Meadows regional.

Barrington, the No. 4 seed in the Hoffman Estates sectional complex, advances to Saturday’s 3 p.m. regional final.

The Fillies (22-15) will play host Meadows, the No. 7 seed, which defeated No. 10 Conant 25-13, 25-20 in the second semifinal Wednesday.

“I thought we played an outstanding match,” said Fremd coach Curt Pinley. “In fact I thought we played a better game than they did but in order to beat a team like that, you have to play even better.”

There wasn’t much difference between Barrington and Fremd (15-22), the No. 14 seed, in the first game.

The teams traded the lead five times. By the time the score was 6-6, they had already been tied six times.

At 13-13, kills by Natalie Barton and Lexi Zimmerman helped Barrington build a 15-13 lead.

But Fremd stayed close behind kills from Ashley Dipasquale and Katharine Leginski and managed to tie the game at 20-20.

But kills by Barton and Chelsea Nagle put Barrington ahead 22-20, and the game ended on kills by Barton and Melanie Lorenz.

Fremd got off to a 5-0 lead in Game 2 behind 3 straight aces by Ester Mellado, and the Vikings maintained their advantage the rest of the way.

“We made a lot of hitting errors,” said Barrington coach Kathleen Russell. “Our defense and hitter errors were terrible in the second game.

“We just have to get in the habit of playing our game. They want someone to get the ball but they need to talk to each other more, which they did in the third game.”

The third game resembled the first. Tied at 3-3, Fremd took the lead and held it until a 4-0 run cut it to 12-10.

Down 12-11, Barrington scored 6 of the next 8 points to go in front for good.

“We got down in Game 3 a bit,” Pinley said. “We dug a hole and it’s tough to come back, but I thought we showed a lot of character in coming back.”

“We turned it around defensively,” Russell said. “Autumn (Worozaken) was just bombing them.”

Worozaken had several key kills for the Fillies, finishing with a match-high 13, while setter Caroline Vanacker came up with some outstanding defensive plays for the Vikings.

“She’s been the heart and soul of out team all year,” Pinley said. “She brought that something extra tonight and kept us in the game.”