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Boys volleyball: Lake Park starts with two wins

Lake Park has made a nice habit of finishing strong the last few years on the volleyball court, but the same Lancers also have tended to start their seasons off with a speed bump or two.

In Wednesday's first-round action at the 16th annual Tiger Classic, Lake Park stumbled in its opening set before rallying to defeat Downers Grove South 23-25, 25-20, 25-14. The Lancers, third in the state last year, followed up that opening win with another three-setter, defeating Andrew 25-19, 22-25, 25-16 to finish 2-0 in pool play at Wheaton Warrenville South.

"It was our first match of the year," said senior setter Robert Sampson, who had 34 assists. "We came out kind of slow and it was sloppy. There were a lot of errors in blocking, so we made sure to pick up our blocking in the next games."

The Mustangs (1-3), who were led by some big hitting from Caleb Minnis and some stellar defense from Andy Seitz, eked out the tight first set and hung close in the second before the Lancers drew even following an ace from Jordan Haigh that closed the set 25-20.

In the decisive third set Lake Park used a key 8-3 surge to turn an 11-8 lead into a 19-11 advantage that powered them to victory. During one stretch the Lancers won points on three straight big blocks, two coming from 6-foot-7 Nick Martinski, who finished with 14 kills and 7 blocks before adding 9 more kills in the win over Andrew.

"From the past four years I've been on varsity we've always had first-game jitters going into it so, I think that played a big part," he said of his team's loss in the first set it played in 2018. "We just had to find ourselves. I knew that there would be some errors early, but we cleaned that up."

The big block played a big part in the cleanup process; fellow 6-7 Lancer Max Ellenbecker also had seven rejections against Downers Grove South.

"One thing with the block is that it really helps our defense around it, just getting touches or putting the ball down," said Martinski, who made the move to outside hitter after three seasons in the middle. "It helps our diggers in the back row, either take something off to get a nice pass with it or get a block. It really energizes us. It's a big part of it."

New Lancers coach Brian Fischer couldn't get down on his players for being a little nervous to start the season. He had similar feelings.

"I'll give the kids the benefit of the doubt if they had some first-game jitters," he said. "I had them as well. We've been kind of chomping at the bit the last three-and-a-half weeks. Some of the adrenaline just kind of got to us a little bit, overshooting things. But I like the way that we calmed down the second and third sets."

Mustangs coach Kurt Steuer was happy with the way his team fought against a Lancers team that has reached the Elite Eight four years running.

"Coach (Tony) Nevrlty and I couldn't have been more thrilled with the effort we had. Sometimes it just doesn't go your way, but we had the effort," Steuer said. "It was definitely a confidence booster playing a team like Lake Park, to come out and take that first set. But in the second and third set we just couldn't find the ball at the net and they were able to put the ball down on the floor consistently."

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