Girls Volleyball: Barrington beats upset-minded Oak Park-River Forest for Autumnfest title

LOMBARD – Barrington outside hitter Jessica Horwath heard the cameras clicking as she posed with the Most Valuable Player Award plaque at Glenbard East’s Autumnfest on Saturday.

No team is clicking quite like the Fillies.

Horwath, a 6-foot-1 senior, smashed a match-high 11 kills as Barrington rallied from deficits in both sets to knock off upset-minded Oak Park-River Forest 26-24, 25-21 in the championship match.

“It’s my last (regular season) tournament,” Horwath said. “I’ve never won it in my four years.

“That really meant something to me and I can’t do it without everybody else.”

Indeed, fourth-seeded Barrington (33-1) got solid performances from every position in extending its winning streak to 18 matches. That included a 25-20, 10-25, 25-20 upset of top-seeded and top-ranked Mother McAuley (31-3) in the Autumnfest semifinals.

The Fillies have done it despite losing 6-4 South Carolina recruit Campbell Paris to a season-ending back injury in the second match of the season. They also are without 5-11 senior middle blocker Caroline Petitgout, who has a sprained ankle but hopes to return for the state playoffs.

Horwath,an Arizona beach volleyball recruit, has picked up the slack with help from junior middle Berkeley Ploder, junior outside Hope Regas, senior middle Sydney Louis and junior setters Jenna Meitzler and Gwen Adler.

“Coach says it a million times, we can have anybody do any role,” Horwath said. “We’ve showed that that this season with Campbell and Caroline being out.

“We know that we have people that can step up and play and when that works, it all just clicks together.”

The Fillies fell back on that unity against seventh-seeded Oak Park (23-8), which stunned second-seeded Benet (28-4) in the quarterfinals and No. 3 seed Huntley (26-6) in the semifinals, both in straight sets.

The Huskies, who got six kills each from Grace Nelson and Reese Garland, used a 10-3 run to take a 19-13 lead in the first set before Horwath, who had been shut out until that point, landed four kills and Meitzler and Louis one each to turn the tide.

Horwath spiked her fifth kill to break a 24-all tie and Adler followed with ace to take the set.

“I think we were just tired from McAuley,” Meitzler said. “(The semifinal win) was a big high.

“If you had asked me last year, I would not have felt that that would have happened this year. It was difficult at first, but I think our serving helped a lot.”

Oak Park jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set, only to have Horwath trigger a rally with another kill. Meitzler served three straight points, including two aces, and Horwath had one ace during a five-point run on her serve as the Fillies took a 14-13 lead on a block by Louis.

The Huskies retook the lead, 16-15, but then it was Regas’ turn to step up. She ripped four of her seven kills, including the clincher off an Adler assist, down the stretch.

“We just keep growing,” said Meitzler, who joined Horwath on the all-tournamen tteam, as did Oak Park’s Nelson and Kinsey Smith. “We’ve had so many more reps that we’ve become a more athletic group and we just keep getting better.”

The Fillies have more than mere athleticism.

“Everybody stepped up, and that’s really big,” Horwath said. “We have Jenna and Gwen running the offense, we’ve got great hitters in Hope and Berkeley and Syd andJenna.

“We know we can trust each other. We have that love for each other on and off the court, so it makes it easy.”

The tournament championship proves that Barrington, which was third at the Class 4A state finals last year, will not be an easy team to eliminate.

“It’s going to take a lot,” Barrington coach Michelle Jakubowski said. “It’s going to take someone special.

“They just have that on-the-court confidence, but they’re not cocky. They have humbleness, but they’re not going to go down.”

Benet beat St. Charles East for fifth place.