Boys Volleyball: Barrington captures first Mid-Suburban League title since 2005

Updated: May 16, 2012 9:02PM

Taylor Ganzer’s hitters must love him.

The 6-1 senior setter distributed 27 assists leading to at least three kills from five different attackers as No. 8 Barrington defeated Buffalo Grove 25-18, 25-17 Wednesday in Barrington to win its first Mid-Suburban League championship since 2005.

Six-foot-5 outside Jeff Hochstein led the Broncos (27-6) with eight kills, 6-4 junior Charlie Spry added six kills and two blocks and 6-8 Tommy Leonard added five kills and three blocks. Junior Kevin Eiring added four kills and 6-6 junior Peter Van Fossan had three kills and a block.

“Taylor’s sets were amazing,” Spry said. “He was perfect every game. To be honest, we changed the tempo this season and he did exactly what we needed him to do, for me specifically and for everyone else, and it showed.”

Barrington coach Rob Ridenour also had high praise for his floor general.

“Whenever you talk about balance offensively, a lot of credit has to go to the setter,” he said. “Taylor had great night tonight. If I had an MVP for the match, he was definitely it. He did a great job getting our hitters great matchups.”

Ganzer, on the other hand, gave all the credit to his attackers.

“It’s unreal,” he said. “It’s the best lineup I’ve ever had. It’s picture perfect.”

Barrington led 11-9 in both games, then went on long runs in each to build comfortable leads.

Back-to-back Buffalo Grove errors and a Spry kill gave the hosts a 19-12 cushion in Game 1, and two Leonard putaways sandwiched around a Charlie Kingwill ace allowed the Broncos to open a 20-13 lead in Game 2.

Hochstein’s kill of the block ended Game 1, and Spry’s kill into a double-team capped a perfect MSL season for the winners.

“We played really well in spurts, then we’d have a serve-receive breakdown or make another error,” Buffalo Grove coach Matt Aiello said. “They weren’t ace-ing us, but they were forcing us to set 10, 12 feet off the net so were out of system.

“We weren’t able to get Matt (Bloom) the ball as much as we wanted,” he added. “We weren’t able to get (6-7 Sam) Wacker the ball or (6-7 Michael) Starzec the ball. Evan (Bunnetto) did a great job on the outside, but right now we don’t necessarily want him to have to carry the load.”

Bunnetto led No. 10 Buffalo Grove (23-11) with eight kills, Bloom added six kills and 11 assists and Starzec and Wacker each had three kills. Libero Michael Maley added 12 digs.

MSL West Division co-player of the year libero Austin Czarnecki had 10 digs for the Broncos.

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