Glenbard West remains focused on championship
To hear Paulie Bischoff recall it, Glenbard West underwent a transformation in the 24 hours leading up to Friday's boys volleyball state quarterfinals.
"I definitely would say our mindset changed from yesterday to today," the Hilltoppers' junior setter said. "As a team our whole focus this week in practice was keeping that mindset. Last year we kind of came into this first game less focused and underestimating our opponent, and we didn't respond. We're going to have to keep that focus throughout these two days in order to get to that (championship) game."
The Hilltoppers looked very focused at Hoffman Estates High School, defeating Lake Park 25-14, 25-16 to advance to the semifinals Saturday morning against Addison Trail. The championship and third-place matches at Saturday afternoon.
"As a team we played every point like it was our last ever," Bischoff added.
"They're obviously a really good team," said Lancers coach Tim Murphy, a 1998 Lake Park alum. "Their offense is the fastest offense that I've seen in a couple of years. We ran a really quick offense last year. It was something that we tried to prepare with to try to show these guys this quick offense, and it was way quicker than what we expected. ... In my opinion they're probably the favorites to go forward and win state."
The Hilltoppers (37-2) have been motivated by the memory of last season's third-place finish.
"I know last year it didn't end where my teammates wanted it, where I wanted it as well," Bischoff said. "I just know I'm not going to let this go, and hopefully tomorrow, as a team, we can pull it out."
"He is so focused right now, I don't know how to explain it," added Hilltoppers coach Christine Giunta-Mayer. "He's on a mission. He keeps getting better and better every game."
Bischoff finished with 26 assists and 5 kills. Jackson Nagle led Glenbard West with 10 kills, Parker Swartz had 8 and Kyler Kotsakis and Eric Button added 6 apiece.
"A lot of times teams pick on Kyler, so we make sure that everybody is involved so the heat's not on Kyler a lot," Giunta-Mayer said. "Today they couldn't stop our middles so why not run the middles?
"We wanted to establish that we can run everybody so we laid the heat off of Kyler. He had three finals today. The kid's exhausted. He said that sounds great."
Glenbard West, which defeated the Lancers in last year's third-place match, treated Lake Park like it was better than the team that finished 19-16 this season and lost six of its last seven regular-season matches. It was a good move.
"We just started to click at the start of the playoffs and we found our groove," said senior middle hitter Nick Dakajos, one of several Lancers injured or ill during their late-season skid.
"I couldn't be prouder of the way these guys persevered forward and really just excelled to their potential," coach Murphy added.
Senior outside hitter Kyle Murphy led the Lancers with 11 kills, flying all over the court.
"Just before every play I thought about going 100 percent, just attacking as hard as I could," he said.
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