LZ puts big scare into Warren

Of course 17-game winner Warren was expected to roll over Lake Zurich in Monday night boys volleyball.

After all, that’s what happened when this North Suburban Conference powerhouse took it to the Bears at the Lake County Tournament last month.

However, this expected rout was anything but.

Lake Zurich, winner of three matches all of last season, won Game 1 and nearly won the third game. Warren (18-8) escaped the LZ gym with an exciting 19-25, 25-17, 25-22 victory.

With just 1 conference loss, Warren is still in the hunt for an NSC crown. Looming Thursday night is a key NSC battle against Stevenson.

Warren needed all of Drew Crawford’s 15 kills to prevail. A season ago, this senior watched from the bench. In this match, he recorded 9 of his kills in the Game 1 loss.

“We played them at Lake County and beat them in two,” Crawford said. “They have really improved. We were a bit nervous after they beat us.”

The Bears (14-14) used a pair of kills from senior Chris Olson (6 kills) to claim the opening game.

“This team is beginning to believe in themselves,” said Bears coach Lesly Ravenscraft. “A loss like this now makes them mad.”

Game 2 belonged to the Blue Devils, as Dillon Schaefer (8 kills) began to assert himself in the middle. Chandler Scott’s block ended the second game in favor of Warren.

“We didn’t think this was going to be a cakewalk,” said Blue Devils coach Yun Chen. “We got the win but still missed a lot of serves. That’s been hurting us a little bit.”

Game 3 was up for grabs. The Bears got some key kills from junior middle Colton Every (10 kills) and stayed right with the Blue Devils.

“Colton played a lot better than I thought he would,” Crawford said.

With the game knotted at 12-12 and Crawford serving, the Blue Devils opened a 15-13 lead. The Bears answered with an Olson block that cut the Blue Devils’ edge to 17-16.

“We played well, but not to our potential,” Crawford said.

A fierce hit from Eduard Ciobanu (9 kills) gave the Blue Devils an 18-17 lead, and the the Bears couldn’t cut into that margin the rest of the way.

Warren setter Tyler Smith notched 23 assists and helped his offense with 4 kills. On the other side of the net, Bears sophomore setter Jeremy Anderson had 25 assists, Chris Carmody added 10 kills, Kyle Miller had 5 and Tom Doherty 3.