Lake Park too much for Elk Grove

Lake Park didn’t play flawless volleyball in Friday’s Schaumburg sectional semifinal against Elk Grove.

But the Lancers came pretty close.

The No. 1 seed excelled in all areas of the game in an overwhelming 25-16, 25-13 victory over the fifth-seeded Grenadiers.

Lake Park had a consistent hitting effort across the board as junior outside Michal Ragan hammered 7 kills while Eddie Keesecker and Trace Szczygiel had 6 apiece.

“It’s nice when you have a game plan and you come out and follow that game plan and perform well,” said Lancers coach Brad Baker.

“Elk Grove is a much better team than what they showed tonight — but we were able to take advantage of their mistakes, and that’s a credit to our guys.”

Grens coach Dan Windholz admitted that nerves might have gotten the better of his junior- and sophomore-laden squad on the big stage of the sectional tournament.

“We ran into a runaway train tonight,” said Windholz. “We were very nervous and they were very good, and when you pit nervous against good, it doesn’t turn out well.”

After dropping the first point of the first set, Lake Park took control and led every step of the way in the remainder of Game 1 thanks to the play of senior setter Matt McCown (22 assists) and the defense of Jeremy Bolnius (4 digs).

Elk Grove was able to close to within 3 points of the Lancers in Game 2 after a spike by junior Aaron Kraus (4 kills), but a quick 5 point run by the Lancers put the game and the match on ice.

“We did struggle a bit early in the match,” said Lancers outside hitter Szczygiel, “but we were able to turn that around and we had very few errors thereafter.”

Michael Kawa and Don Gardner each added 3 kills for the Grens.

“We’re a young team,” said Windholz, “and I told the guys that a match like this lets us see what point we’re at — and where we need to get to to beat a team like Lake Park.”