Lake Park takes Valley title
Last year there was a three-way tie for the championship of the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division, but on Tuesday Lake Park grabbed sole possession of the crown.
The Lancers executed their game plan, to run their middles, to near perfection as they topped host Waubonsie Valley 25-21, 19-25, 25-23 to win the title outright and remain undefeated in conference play at 5-0.
Lake Park, which is 21-9 overall, tied with both Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley for the title last year.
“The plan was to play good volleyball, get good passes and run our middles as much as possible,” said middle hitter Andrew Hochstadt, who led the Lancers with 12 kills. “It’s all about executing the way we know we can. Even though we don’t have any superstars, we’re a team that just gets the job done.”
“After reviewing film of the match, we lost to them in the Tiger Classic, we saw what worked and what didn’t,” coach Tim Murphy said. “We know their two outsides are their best players and we had to close the block on the outside to make anybody but those outsides beat us. We were able to close those blocks and they got a little frustrated.”
In Game 1 the Warriors (20-6, 4-1) challenged right to the end despite committing numerous errors.
There were a dozen ties in the game, the last one when the Warriors tied it at 21-21 on a Michael Simmons kill, but the Lancers closed the game with a 4-point run.
“In that first game we played not to lose instead of playing to win,” said Waubonsie Valley coach Al Lagger.
The Warriors played more relaxed, passed better and were generally more effective in Game 2. They got stronger at the end as they closed out with their biggest lead of the night at 25-19.
In Game 3 the Lancers took control, but Waubonsie fought back and once again tied it at 21-21, but Lake Park went back to the middle again with Devin Burke scoring on two big kills down the stretch.
“Winning the division was a great feeling,” Hochstadt said. “It was what we set our eyes on playing against both Waubonsie and Neuqua. It’s great to finally win it.”
Burke had 6 kills and 6 blocks for the Lancers, and Brian Fischer had 9 kills and added 14 digs. Pasquale Maranto was the dig leader with 15 and Dave Prentis had 33 assists.
“I told the guys that the team that executed would win,” Lagger said. “If you watched down the stretch, they did a good job of keeping the ball in play and executing, and that’s what won the match for them. Lake Park came in here with a plan and they stuck to it.”
Simmons led the Warriors with 11 kills, followed by Jon Pyne with 9 and Mike Storm with 8. Furman had 28 assists and Michael Nicholas came up with 10 digs followed by Dan Allen with 9.