Barrington surges past Loyola to win Mustang Invite title

Complacent. Lazy.

Those were some of the words being thrown around after Barrington dropped the first game of the championship match of the Downers Grove South Mustang Invite to Loyola.

“We didn’t really have an edge in Game 1 mentally,” Barrington coach Rob Ridenour said. “I think we were trying hard, but we weren’t prepping early enough and we kind of played a very complacent game. But our ball control settled in in Games 2 and 3, and for us that’s the key.

“If we can control the ball, first contact, we’re reasonably pretty good.”

Barrington broke a 4-4 tie in the second set with a 15-7 run, then opened the third set by scoring eight of the first nine points to defeat Loyola, 20-25, 25-16, 25-12, and win the championship of the 24-team tournament.

“Our middles started closing the blocks in Games 2 and 3,” Ridenour said. “I thought TJ (Murray, a 6-8 junior middle) had a monster match from a blocking standpoint, and (libero) James Tiao played really well after a rough first game. We completely cleaned up our passing and defense in Games 2 and 3.”

Murray, one of two rookie middles for Barrington (21-1), had six kills and three blocks in the title match. Barrington’s other first-year middle, 6-6 sophomore Josh Babicz, chipped in five kills and a block.

“We came out lazy in Game 1 and weren’t ready for what was coming at us,” Murray said. “I think we all just were angry with each other. We told each other we needed to wake up and play to the best of our abilities because were we just being super lazy.

“We know how well we can play. We did a lot better in the second game.”

An ace by Barrington sophomore Conner Shoults put Loyola (19-4) in an 18-11 hole in Game 2 from which the Ramblers never recovered. Ethan Carroll, a 6-7 junior who moved to the outside after playing middle last year, then got Barrington going in Game 3 with back-to-back aces.

“Between Games 2 and 3 we realized we had to step it up and bring it to another level of energy,” said Carroll, who finished with eight kills, a block and three aces. “That definitely happened out there, and it’s great.”

By the time Carroll served his third ace of Game 3, Barrington had built a 17-6 lead.

“It’s huge to come back and win it seeing how we did last year [sixth place],” Carroll said. “It’s definitely a great accomplishment for the whole team.”

Justin and Adam Glader each had five kills for Barrington, which also got 28 assists, four blocks and a kill from setter Noah Ricchetti.

Connor Kreb led Loyola with 13 kills, Jakub Mazurek added eight kills and Jake Talaga had 28 assists.

“We brought it to them in Game 1, but they’re a great team and unfortunately we got tired,” Loyola coach Lionel Ebeling said. “We spent a lot of energy on that New Trier game, a lot of emotional energy, and it was an exciting match.

“Volleyball is a game of momentum, and they (Barrington) had some big jump-servers and our ball control kind of fell apart. Then they put up a big block. But we can play with anybody in the state. If we can play anybody in one match in one day, we’re in it. That part’s exciting.”

Loyola advanced to the championship match by defeating New Trier, 25-21, 16-25, 25-14, despite 15 kills and four blocks by the Trevians’ Peter Hindsley and 11 digs from Brian Hammes. New Trier (21-1) played without 6-2 outside Henry LeVee, who was resting some sore knees.

“I think our team is a little beat up,” New Trier coach Sue Ellen Haak said. “But I have to give it to Loyola. I thought they played extraordinarily well. They took advantage when we made errors when most teams have not. We’ve been able to come back if we make early errors, but they didn’t let us.”

New Trier rolled to a 25-18, 25-17 victory over Naperville North (13-8) for third place behind four kills and two blocks by Colin Crowder and five kills by Dan Wachura.

Maine South (11-7), which lost to Barrington in pool play Friday, won the Silver division by defeating Downers North, 25-17, 24-26, 25-16, behind Carthage recruit Evan Walsh.