Lake Park win goes according to form
For their first season in the DuPage Valley Conference, senior Jeff Yost and his Lake Park boys volleyball teammates have been consistently successful in the most precarious way.
On Tuesday the Lancers lost the first game but rallied to outlast Wheaton North 21-25, 25-22, 25-14 in Wheaton.
The Lancers (11-2) have won each of their first three DVC matches in three games after losing the first.
"We have a pretty good track record in third games, seeing as we've done so many of them. But coming after that second game, we all had our energy up," Yost said. "We just can't seem to get our energy up in the first game for some reason. I don't know what it is, but we've got to figure it out."
Lake Park senior setter Quin Krisik provided the comeback spark against the Falcons (8-6, 1-2) with his blistering serve at the outset of the second and third games. The Lancers often had small leads but never trailed in the final two games.
Libero Anthony Amore served six straight points to give the Lancers their first match point at 24-14.
"(Krisik's serving) changed the momentum, I think, a little bit. We rely on Quin for that with his serving. I think he sets the tone for us as the match goes on," Lake Park coach Tim Murphy said. "I would like for us not to come out flat, which I think that we are doing consistently as a team. We made way too many errors in game one. Take nothing away from (Wheaton North). They played a really good match."
Krisik and Yost each had with 5 aces. Dominick Terry had 12 kills, and Krisik also had 28 assists and team highs of 10 service points and 16 digs.
Jack Kirschbaum and Joe Mullinger each had 6 kills for Wheaton North, which had 21 for the match. Hank Bowen had 20 assists and Nick Johnson had 12 digs and 9 service points.
Krisik opened the second game by putting Lake Park ahead 5-0. The Falcons tied the game once at 19 after five points in a row from Bowen. The Lancers' Sean Moore soon delivered an ace and two points for a 22-19 lead. Krisik collected game point on a dump kill off serve receive.
"I knew we had to do something to get out of that first game," Krisik said. "We were kind of in a rut, but I took it upon myself to get back there and get some serves in. I knew we just needed to keep the ball in play."
The third game began in similar fashion behind Krisik's serve. His first two offerings were two aces en route to a 3-0 lead. The Falcons closed to within one point twice, the last at 4-3, but only scored two points on their serve for the set.
"(Krisik) had a great jump serve that was giving us fits so give credit to him," Wheaton North coach John Noe said. "I told (our guys), against the teams we play, we can't let them build their momentum back up. Lake Park did a great job of staying composed and fixing what they needed to fix to win the second set and, ultimately, the third."
The Lancers kept their energy under control. After 29 attack or service errors over the first two games, they had only four in the third. Terry exploded for 6 kills, including the Lancers' final two points.
After no kills in the first game, Yost had four in the second. He added two more aces in the third game with an accurate but less powerful serve than Krisik's.
"I pride myself on my serving. It's definitely one of my better parts of play," Yost said. "It helps when you listen to coach and he points out the zone you've got to hit (serving). You do what he says and generally good things happen."