Boys volleyball: Krasowski, Lake Zurich make impressive leap
Sure, Alex Krasowski played on the state-bound Lake Zurich boys volleyball team a year ago. But clearly something has changed.
The southpaw swinger has gone from a good player to one of the top performers in the area.
"I give all the credit to my coach at Adversity,'' Krasowski said. "Kyle Masterson deserves all the credit."
On paper it was a mismatch on Monday night as Lake Zurich (10-2) took on Palatine (6-9). Yet that first set was as close as could be.
"That was one of our toughest matches,'' said Lake Zurich coach Lesly Ravenscraft. "They (Palatine) had such a big block. That was one the best blocking teams we've seen."
Palatine though, was facing one of the tougher serving teams in the home-standing Bears.
Lake Zurich slipped by the Pirates 25-23, 25-17.
Speaking of tough servers, the Bears got off to a quick start behind the sizzling serves of setter Jeff Carmody.
"We have a lot of good servers,'' Carmody noted.
The Bears looked in control, up 5-1. However, the Pirates struck back behind the hard kills of junior Johnny O'Shea. Two O'Shea kills and one by Bryant Smith, and this set was knotted at 12-12.
A Jeff Gorey kill gave the Bears a slim lead at 17-16.
Down the stretch in the first set, the Palatine offense was stymied by the hard hits of Krasowski (13 kills). He had 3 kills and Gorey added one more as the Bears prevailed.
"We have a good offense, when we stay in system,'' Krasowski said. "It really depends of how well we are passing."
Krasowski and Carmody are two of the five seniors on the Lake Zurich squad; there are also two sophomores and two freshmen. Luke Pytlak, a freshman, started for the Bears.
Set two started the same way as the first set. Palatine is another young team. The Pirates have only five seniors. On a Camden Hill kill, Palatine trailed just 7-6.
This time, however, the Bears began to pull away. Gorey (11 kills) was at the serving line when Krasowski again put away a few balls. Ptylak checked in with a dump shot and Lake Zurich opened up some breathing room at 13-8.
The Pirates slipped behind the Bears and made a few mistakes down the stretch. One highlight for the visitors came with O'Shea serving. Matt Cooper, a senior, put the ball away and Palatine was down by 5 at 19-14.
Out of the middle came 6-foot-2 Michael Baciu with a few kills as the Lake Zurich lead was steady. And the final kill of the match went to
Krasowski.
Krasowski is happy with his college choice of Northwestern. He's well aware they don't have an NCAA volleyball squad, but he is comfortable with playing club volleyball in Evanston.
Bears busy setter Carmody notched 30 assists.
Palatine had help from O'Shea with his 6 kills as Cooper had 5. Curtis McLennan added 4 kills. Conor McGarvey led the serving effort with 10
assists, while O'Shea had 3 blocks and McLennan finished with 9 digs.