Boys volleyball: Lake Park handles South Elgin

Lake Park senior Josh Lange was prepared when his moment arrived Tuesday.

The 6-foot-2 middle blocked over a hundred shots in Monday's practice, Lake Park boys volleyball coach Tim Murphy said. The refresher course made a difference late in the second set of the top sectional seed's 25-16, 25-20 sweep of No. 16 South Elgin in a Conant regional semifinal.

The Lancers were nursing a 19-16 lead against inspired South Elgin (10-23) when Lange delivered consecutive block kills against big swings from the Storm. Those 2 points went a long way to closing out a tougher-than-expected victory for Lake Park (34-1).

"In practice Tuesday we really focused on getting out to the pins and setting the block properly so I really had that mindset," said Lange, who finished with 4 blocks. "I really focused on getting the proper hand placement and that worked for us."

"He really improved on where his feet were blocking in this match," Murphy said. "He got a few blocks and gave us a spark."

Senior Jack Fischer and junior Austin Bayner delivered 7 kills apiece, 6-foot-7 senior Nick Martinski finished with 6 kills and 4 blocks and 6-4 senior setter Justin Yost registered 23 assists for the Lancers, whose only loss this season came against New Trier.

Lake Park, a state quarterfinalist in 2016 that returns the bulk of its lineup, advances to Wednesday's Conant regional final against No. 9 Rockford Boylan (18-9), which defeated Elgin 25-22, 25-18 in Wednesday's second semifinal.

Though the Lancers swept, they were challenged by South Elgin attacks from senior Tyler Turner and Vincent Miskiewicz, set ably by senior Aaron Gephart. The Storm forged a 14-14 tie in the first set, but Lake Park responded with an 11-2 closing run, keyed at the outset by kills from Bayner and Fischer.

Keeping both sets competitive against one of the state's top teams was a shot in the arm for the South Elgin program.

"To see how my guys responded and played and got up for the challenge, I couldn't be more happy with how they played," South Elgin coach Adam Plach said. "Obviously, it would be nice if the result was a little different, but there's not much more I can expect out of them in that game, especially considering we don't have a lot of guys that play year round."