Broncos Volleyball Team Finishes Third at State

The Barrington Broncos had a moratorium on how long they were going to allow the sting from the loss earlier in the day that cost them the opportunity to play for the 4A state title, because they didn’t want it affecting their match against Minooka for third place later.

“We were pretty upset that first couple of hours,” Barrington’s coach Rob Ridenour said of their 25-20, 25-18 loss to the second best team in the nation, Wheaton-Warrenville South. 

“But we talked how at three o’clock we weren’t allowed to be upset anymore,” he went on to say how the team prepared for their match against Minooka for third place.  “As soon as three o’clock hit they got into a good frame of mind and played a good match.”

“We were all mad about that loss (earlier) and came together,” senior Tommy Leonard said of how the team handled the loss to Wheaton-Warrenville South, the second time this year they lost to the Tigers.  “We said, ‘Two teams walk away from this tournament with a win for their last game,’ and that was huge for us.”

The Broncos (34-7) would take home the third place trophy with
a 2-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-18) win over Minooka (37-4). It started by Barrington jumping out to an early lead on the Indians as the Broncos would lead wire-to-wire in the opening
match.

“We just wanted to come away (from the season) with a win,” senior setter Taylor Ganzer said.  “That motivated the team to get off to an early start.”  Ganzer would end the match leading all players with 31 assists; he also chipped in 5 digs.

Minooka was able to bounce back for a second round 25-20 win as Barrington was only able to see two brief leads but it was in that match that something clicked for senior outside hitter Jeff Hochstein who said he had felt “off” the last couple of matches.

“In the middle of game two I got a pretty good kill,” he said of one of his 13 kills in the game.  “And I was like, ‘I’m back!’” 

Hochstein admitted that he felt he had struggled during Barrington’s quarterfinals win (23-25, 25-17, 28-26) over Lake Park the previous night.

“Overnight I thought about how I really needed to come back strong,” Hochstein said.  “(Coming back strong) will be what I remember about the state experience.”

“Even though he may have struggled offensively those first couple of matches he had double digit digs in both contests and he passed pretty well,” Ridenour said.  “Teams went after him this weekend and that was obvious.”   

The Broncos began their third match in a seesaw battle with the Indians but after being tied at 4, the solid play of Hochstein and fellow senior middle hitter Leonard began to power them past Minooka by scoring 16 of the next 21 points. 

“After the second game we calmed down,” Leonard said of how the team was able to find another gear against Minooka to start their third match.  “We were confident and just played our game.”

Barrington didn’t look back securing the 25-18 victory with Hochstein nailing home the game winning kill.  Leonard and Hochstein tied and led all players with 13 kills but Leonard only had 19 attempts and was errorless. Hochstein led the team with 9 digs.

“This is amazing how this feels,” Barrington’s libero Austin Czarnecki said of ending the senior season with a win.  “It’s almost like we are in a dream.”

“Ending the season with a win and bringing a trophy back to (Barrington) High School in our last game in our senior year is just…unbelievable,” Czarnecki went on to say.