Lake Park handles Geneva to reach state

Lake Park came prepared to handle anything Geneva threw its way in Tuesday's night's Harlem sectional championship match in Machesney Park.

Thanks to a tenacious defensive effort at the net and in the back row, Lake Park limited Geneva standout 6-foot-8 outside hitter Nick Busecki to just 5 kills and essentially neutralized the Vikings' outside attack.

Senior outside hitter Kyle Murphy anchored an efficient Lancers' offense with 10 kills as they pulled away in the second half of both games to secure a 25-19, 25-19 victory.

Lake Park (19-15) advances to the state finals for the third time in four years and will face powerhouse Glenbard West (37-2) in Friday's 5 p.m. quarterfinal match at Hoffman Estates High School.

"It was a long process and hard work," Murphy said. "We really focused on our defense a lot and that's what's keeping us alive right now."

"Our motto is every point is game point, so nothing hits the ground without us diving and that's how we played tonight," said Lancers coach Tim Murphy. "I think blocking goes into that and it was definitely our first line of defense."

"We just didn't execute as cleanly as we had the past couple of matches and couldn't string points together," said Geneva coach Annie Seitelman, as her squad completed its most successful season at 21-17.

With the first set tied at 8-8, the Lancers ran off four points behinds a pair of kills from Murphy and a big block from Austin Patchin on Busecki.

Geneva answered with a 3-point run to close within 12-11 as Jonathan Bishop (6 kills) contributed a free ball kill and teamed with David Franz for a block on Murphy.

However, Lake Park took control with five of the next six points and put the set away on Murphy's free ball win after a controversial lift violation on Geneva.

The Vikings erased a 4-0 deficit in the second set and pulled even at 11-11 as Busecki found the range with three kills during that stretch while Sam Wulfkuhle added a middle kill and a block for another point.

Murphy took matters into his own hands from there, jump serving for six consecutive points to give the Lancers a commanding 20-12 lead.

"Best way to go at it is to go back there and try to serve confidently," Kyle Murphy said.

"He was fantastic on the service line," Tim Murphy said. "That's a sign of mental toughness when you can run six or seven in a row jump serving the ball."

Geneva made a small run to narrow the gap to 22-17, but kills from Jack Fischer and Murphy sealed the win.

"We were pretty close in both games until the mid teens, then I think we just started to try and do too much," Busecki said.

Franz finished with 12 assists for Geneva while Ethan Roesch and Luke Will picked up 11 and 10 digs, respectively.

"We were on the defensive a lot rather than being the aggressor and they did a nice job keeping us out of our system," Seitelman said.

"It was a great run and it's cool for us and the school to be able to get this far for the first time," Busecki said.

Patchin collected 18 assists and 11 digs for Lake Park. Fischer added 6 kills and Blake Heitman had 11 digs.

"After the first game, coach said it's not over," Patchin said. "We still had 25 points left and we wanted to make him happy." Patchin said.

The Lancers know they have their work cut out for them Friday against an experienced Glenbard West squad. The two teams met in last year's third place match, with the Hilltoppers claiming a 26-24, 25-19 decision.

"We've got to give it our all. We have nothing to lose," Patchin said.