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Boys volleyball: Rolling Meadows' extra energy not enough against Lake Park

Arthur Barczak and the 18th-seeded Rolling Meadows boys volleyball team knew they needed one thing if they wanted any shot at upsetting second-seeded Lake Park.

"Energy," Barczak said.

After dropping the first set to Lake Park convincingly, Rolling Meadows brought plenty of oomph in the second set.

"We pretty much played how we had been playing in the last two or three weeks," Barczak said. "We have been getting extremely hyped after every single play, giving us the energy that gets us to play really well."

But Lake Park picked up its own verve and beat Rolling Meadows 25-14, 25-20 to advance to Wednesday night's regional title match against Glenbard East at Lake Park.

Lake Park (30-5) cruised in the first set, leading by as many as 13.

"We had good first contact, we got blocks, we served pretty well," Lake Park's Austin Bayner said. "I thought it was overall just a good set."

Rolling Meadows (19-18) didn't roll over. The Mustangs scored the first three points of the second set and led 5-1 early on in the set.

"Those first few points got us really excited," Barczak said. "Obviously, getting a lead on them is what we needed. It got us really excited to keep playing."

That run shocked Lake Park.

"We overlooked them and they fought back," Bayner said.

Try as Lake Park could, the Lancers couldn't take the lead. Lake Park scored 3 straight points to tie it at 13, but the Mustangs rattled off 2 points on a kill and block from Greg Bouraoui.

Lake Park did take the lead, briefly, at 16-15, but Rolling Meadows scored 4 straight points - a Max Schertler kill, a Max Sobkowicz block, a Bouraoui block and a Schertler kill - to take a 19-16 lead and force a Lake Park timeout.

"Our blocking was what changed the pace of the game for us," Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Bourn said. "We were getting blocks that we were not getting the first game. You go up 19-16 (and) you don't want to count your chickens before they hatch, but we were feeling pretty good."

But Lake Park coach Brian Fischer and his team rallied.

"I kind of challenged them," Fischer said. "This group of guys likes to be challenged.

"I challenged them and said, 'You're on your home floor, you're lucky enough to be hosting a regional; let's go out there and take care of what we should be taking care of on our home floor.'"

That test worked for the Lancers.

Nicholas Marinski and Bayner had kills from Robert Sampson out of the time out and Joseph Wrobel had an ace to tie it at 19.

A hitting error gave Rolling Meadows the lead, but Lake Park scored the final six points to take the set and match.

"We had a sense of urgency," Bayner said. "It's now or it's too late. We were overlooking and coasting. We thought we could coast that."

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