Boys volleyball: Glenbard West slips past Lake Park

Glenbard West got its groove back to fend off Lake Park and move to the boys volleyball state quarterfinals.

At the Addison Trail sectional final on Tuesday, No. 2 seed Lake Park won the first game, answered by the top-seeded Hilltoppers to win the match in three, 18-25, 25-19, 25-18.

Stopping Lake Park short of a fifth straight trip to the quarterfinals, three-time defending state champion Glenbard West (36-3) advanced to Friday's 10:30 a.m. quarterfinal against 34-5 Barrington, which won the Grant sectional title in two close sets over Libertyville.

"I think we just needed a little while to get our groove and just kind of find the speed we needed to play today and just realize what we needed to do," said Glenbard West outside hitter Stone Metz, who had 14 kills with 9 digs.

"I think it took us the whole first set to kind of figure that out, but toward the end we started to get our groove and we brought it right into the second set and it kind of paid off."

For Hilltoppers coach Christine Giunta-Mayer, "groove" translated to conquering nerves and hammering the volleyball.

"We started swinging more, that's the bottom line," she said. "I see a two-handed tip, and I'm like, 'Oh, boy, what's that about?' And then we started swinging, and once we started swinging, realizing we could do it, we did it."

Lake Park (32-6) did it first. Senior libero Nic Carzoli, who finished with 20 digs, commanded the court, getting the ball to Bob Sampson, who recorded 33 assists. The Lancers launched into a first-set rhythm that initially evaded Glenbard West.

"The first game we came out fighting. I think we made a lot of plays flying around the court, getting touches. I was extremely impressed with the guys," said Brian Fischer, a 2012 Lake Park graduate whose first year as coach was "out of this world," he said.

"Game 2, I think, a slow start got to us. Once we hit the middle of the game we were chipping away points, going back and forth, but it was a little too late. I think the same thing happened in Game 3," he said.

Glenbard West took a 3-2 lead in Game 2 on Benny Harrington's point and led from then on. In Game 3 the Hilltoppers went up 18-10 and then 24-15 before the Lancers rallied to within 24-18. After a timeout the 6-foot-6 Metz's spike finished it.

Harrington had 7 digs and 5 kills for Glenbard West, slashing Ryan Swartz had 13 kills and 8 digs, libero Zack Morris made 15 digs and 6-8 middle J.T. Ardell had 6 kills, 4 blocks. Lake Park's Martinski had 15 kills, Haigh had 9 kills and 10 digs and Al Green had 12 digs.

Martinski, headed to Ball State, saw unforced errors as the difference but also thought Lake Park went out "with a bang."

"I think we're kind of proud of how we played at the end," the 6-7 outside hitter said. "We didn't really give up or roll over, we fought till the end and I think that's something that all of us as a program are going to be really proud of."