Boys volleyball: Lake Park rolls to state with win over St. Charles North
ROCKFORD - Lake Park's boys volleyball team appears to be peaking at the right time.
Just one step away from state, the Lancers were firing on all cylinders Tuesday as they defeated St. Charles North, 25-8, 25-6 to win the Rockford East sectional.
Nick Martinski had 6 kills, 5 blocks, and 3 service aces to lead the Lancers, who improved to 38-1. Jack Fischer had 5 kills and 4 aces and Austin Bayner added 4 kills. Setter Justin Yost contributed 18 assists, 5 digs, 4 blocks, and 2 aces.
Lake Park will face Oak Park-River Forest in the state quarterfinals Friday in Hoffman Estates.
"I always tell teams you want to be playing well at the right time, and we feel like we're playing well at the right time," said Lake Park coach Tim Murphy. "That's exactly what you want to be moving into state weekend."
The Lancers wasted no time. Martinski had 2 blocks and 2 kills during a 9-1 run as the Lancers opened a 12-3 lead in the first set.
"We just had the right mind set going in," said Martinski. "A lot of the guys have been here before. We knew what we needed to get done. We just came in with a game plan and executed it."
It all started from the line for Lake Park, which had 10 aces in all and kept the North Stars on their heels much of the night.
"We were pretty aggressive from the service line," Murphy said. "We served well and made serves, which put a lot of pressure on them to make good passes and be in system."
The second set was more of the same. Bayner had a kill and a block, and Josh Lange smashed one down as the Lancers scored the first 5 points and never looked back.
Tom Koppang had 4 kills for St. Charles North (20-19).
"We played as hard as we could," said St. Charles coach Todd Weimer. "Nobody expected us to go this far. We're 8-2 in playoffs the last 2 seasons, and this is the building block. We're sad to see a lot of our seniors leave, but we've got a nice, strong core of juniors coming back, and we just need to keep building and plugging away."