Boys volleyball: Stevenson repeats Lake County crown
After winning the Lake County Invitational last year with a perfect 5-0 record, the Stevenson boys volleyball was going for back-to-back championships Saturday afternoon at Grant.
And the Patriots (14-5) went 5-0 again as they toppled the host Bulldogs 25-15, 25-20 in the Gold Division finals to capture the title of the powerful 12-team tournament that began Friday night.
Grant (13-5) trailed 22-13 in the second set before a block by Ethan Henney (3 blocks) cut the lead to 23-20. But Stevenson scored the final two points, including a service point by all-tournament player Zolbayar Munkhbat (10 assists) to end the match.
Stevenson junior Jatin Murukuti (6 kills) was also named to the all-tournament team while teammate David Erdenetsogt had 5 kills against the Bulldogs.
"In back-to-back years we went 5-0 in this tournament and defending the championship with a very different team was nice," said Stevenson coach Eric Goolish, whose team defeated Deerfield in the semifinals. "We're trying to emphasize being a complete player and a complete team, and when we start doing this we can play at a high level."
Grant was led by Angel Madera with 6 kills in the championship match while teammate Lance Lavajo had 6 digs and 2 aces against the Patriots.
"We knew that Stevenson was going to be the best team in the tournament, and they have an all-around good offense," said Grant coach J.P. Gizowski, whose team beat Lake Zurich in the semifinals. "Our guys put up a good fight, and we were really happy with our performance because the last time we got to the finals was against Stevenson in 2021."
In the third place match, Deerfield beat Lake Zurich 25-21, 21-25, 15-10. The Bears fell behind 13-6 in the third set and they could never recover.
Seniors Justin Popa and Viktor Stanojevic led Lake Zurich with 9 and 7 kills, respectively. Junior Joshua Stephen had 6 kills and 2 blocks for the Bears while sophomore Yani Oblakov had 23 assists and sophomore Koko Stanojevic had 2 aces.
"One of our main focuses is consistency, and when a good team builds a big lead it's hard to come back so credit to them (Deerfield)," said Lake Zurich coach Brett Stuart, whose team has a 7-5 record. "We had an unfortunate injury where one of our seniors (Andrew Burk) got hurt in warmups this morning. But our sophomore (Aidan Abbate) did awesome stepping in for him as a middle."
On Saturday morning, Carmel Catholic defeated Grayslake North for fifth place in the Silver Division while Grayslake Central beat Cristo Rey for seventh place in the Silver Division.
In Bronze Division play, Belvidere North beat Round Lake 25-20, 25-15. The Panthers (1-8) captured their first win of the season with a hard-fought 27-25, 21-25, 15-11 victory over Lake Forest Saturday morning. Senior Jerry Johnson was the top attacker for Round Lake in the tournament.
"We're down a couple of players and we ran out of gas, but I will say I am super proud of them," said Round Lake coach John Nicoline. "This is the first freshman group that went all the way through as seniors, and it's only the fourth year of our program so we're building."