Boys volleyball: Glenbard West hurries past Lake Park
Glenbard West's boys volleyball team won its annual battle against Lake Park - and a race against time.
The defending state champion had not required a third game in any match this season and couldn't afford to Friday, not with Glenbard West's graduation ceremony slated for 6 p.m. Friday, same as its quarterfinal at Hoffman Estates High School.
The Hilltoppers advanced 25-13, 25-17, then really moved on, jogging from court to locker room to waiting bus so seniors Paulie Bischoff, Will Church, William Dedmond, Kyler Kotsakis, Eric Shanahan and Geo Smith could walk with their classmates.
"We were playing kind of dry on this day every single year, but we came out really strong this match," said Bischoff, the Stanford-bound all-state setter whose 17 assists helped Kotsakis rack up 11 kills and Church 5 with 5 blocks.
"I think that's really important for us, especially with the hot weather outside, we've got graduation today, we were able to focus just on Lake Park," he said.
In Saturday's 11 a.m. semifinal Glenbard West (40-0) will face Sandburg (37-3). The winner plays the winner between New Trier (35-5) and Lake Zurich (30-10) for the state title at 5:15 p.m., with the third-place game at 4 p.m.
"This is always a really tough day to get through and somehow they find a way to do it and they do it with class," said Hilltoppers coach Christine Giunta-Mayer. "I'm super-proud of them, I couldn't be more thrilled that we're going back happy."
Recently her boys have sent the Lancers home sad. In the 2015 quarters Lake Park (30-10) lost to the Hilltoppers by the same total score; in 2014 Glenbard West beat the Lancers for third place.
"I think we were here to play strong volleyball despite who it was," said Lake Park middle hitter Will Moore, headed to downstate Lincoln College. "We were here to do what we normally do as a team and as a program, and I think it just didn't go our way now."
Lancers coach Tim Murphy did what he could before a match he termed "David versus Goliath." His players watched the movie, "Miracle," to capture the mindset. Murphy installed new plays, different positioning, angles, anything to alter Glenbard West's rhythm and efficiency.
"We were not going to come in and just play conventional volleyball and be the 40th team to come in and do that," Murphy said.
Still, after Jordan Haigh's kill for a 2-2 tie in Game 1, Glenbard West scored seven of the next eight points and was off and running. Bischoff assists on the first 2 points of Game 2 set that stage.
The uniform height and quickness of Bischoff, Church, Kotsakis, Robbie Murphy, Cameron Lilly and Matthew Scruggs squeezed Lake Park's Moore and 6-foot-1 opposite Jack Fischer.
"There's two people jumping with their chest above the net and it's hard for me to do what I usually do - which is try to go seams - when they're closing the blocks really well," said Fischer, who joined Moore with 6 kills apiece. Justin Yost recorded 16 assists.
No offensive slouches, either.
"Their offense is just really fast so it's really hard to keep up, blocking-wise, to close blocks all the way around, especially with all the weapons they have on their team," said Lake Park middle Nick Martinski.
As he said that those weapons were slipping into robes.
"It will be pretty bittersweet to do this," Bischoff said, "come here on this last time, this Friday in this gym. But yeah, I'm pretty excited for graduation."