Girls volleyball: Lakes sweeps Grayslake Central to win NLCC championship

The Northern Lake County Conference girls volleyball championship was on the line when host Lakes faced Grayslake Central Thursday night in a battle of two 6-0 teams.

The first set was a real struggle as the teams battled to a 21-21 stalemate before 4 service points by Lovelyn Zamora (6 digs, 3 aces) closed out a 25-21 victory for the Eagles.

Momentum was the name of the game for Lakes (23-8, 7-0) from that point on as it built an 8-1 lead in the second set before posting a 25-17 win to capture its second NLCC crown in three years.

The defending NLCC champion Rams (19-9, 6-1) continued to battle back in the second set as a dink shot by Jisselle Mejia cut the lead to 17-14. But that was as close as they would get as a kill by sophomore Brynn Skinner (14 digs, 5 kills) boosted the lead back to 21-16.

"I'm really happy. I thought we put our best foot forward, and we've been practicing for this every day," said Skinner. "The game plan was to go out, play our game with high communication as always, and play together."

A kill by Ray Sundquist (team-high 9 kills) put the finishing touches on the victory as Zamora also rolled off 4 service points in the second set to close out the match. Sammi Madsen also had a big game for the Eagles with 21 assists.

"I thought we came out really strong with our block tonight. Grayslake Central is always a tough team, and the girls did a great job of executing our game plan," said Lakes coach Sarah Yeager. "We wanted to keep our offense moving and make them kind of guess where we were going to go with the ball. And we didn't want to make it very predictable for them."

Senior Ella LaPorte had a big match for Grayslake Central with 11 kills while senior teammate Niah Mondesir had 4 blocks.

Madalene Mecki had 2 aces for the Rams, who held a 21-20 lead on a service point by sophomore Alivia Salzman late in the first set.

"They came out fast in both sets and then we had to play catch up in both sets," said Grayslake Central coach Arian Colton. "I was really hoping to see some better team play tonight. But we're probably going to see them again in the regional championship game (at Grayslake North). And if we clean up our side of the court it can be a much different game. They've got another opportunity hopefully to get another shot at them."

Isabel Stauber was another key contributor on the attack for Lakes with 2 kills late in the second set while teammate Emily Johnson's spike made the score 19-14 late in the second set.