Balanced Lake Park ends St. Charles North's season

St. Charles North found itself in a tough spot Friday night against No. 1 seed Lake Park at the St. Charles East sectional, one the North Stars knew they would be in after seeing the Lancers in Upstate Eight play.

They could focus on shutting down Michael Kreiser. But that would leave Trace Szczygiel alone. Or they could key on Matthew Ciaglia in the middle. But then look out for Patrick Proctor.

So many options. No wonder Lake Park setter Matthew McCown was smiling from ear to ear after a 25-20, 25-15 victory that sends the Lancers into Tuesday night's sectional championship match against Fremd (24-12).

"It's definitely fun setting these guys," McCown said. "There's basically no time on the court I can't set everybody."

Lake Park (30-7) will try to repeat an earlier 3-game win over Fremd this year while No. 4 seed St. Charles North ends its season at 19-14.

"Our goal was to get the 1 seed in the sectional and go downstate and we are on pace to do that," McCown said. "We're playing our best ball of the season right now."

Lake Park never trailed in Game 1 but never led by 5 points until the final point. The Saints tied the game at 1, 12 and 16, the final one with three straight points on kills by Dillon Havens and Matt Behrens and a Lancer hitting error.

The Lancers answered with the next four points. Kreiser's kill got them going, Ciaglia followed with another winner and then Mitev fired consecutive aces.

The North Stars never got closer than 3 points after that and ended the game with their fourth hitting error of Game 1.

"They are a great all-around team," said Havens, one of 10 seniors who led St. Charles North to its third regional title this season.

"They are very balanced. If were going to lose to anyone I'm glad it is them. Classy kids, good program. That is what we would like to model our program after."

The North Stars scored the first three points of Game 2, which was all Lancers coach Brad Baker needed to see before calling a quick timeout. Pat Sullivan set Behrens for the first point and Branden Hoerner followed with a block kill.

"You just don't want to take things for granted," Baker said. "We are the No. 1 seed so we are going to get everyone's best shot. But we are the No. 1 seed for a reason so we have to make sure we come out and play our game."

That's just what the Lancers did. Trailing 11-9, Lake Park went on a 14-2 burst with hard serves that led to North Star breakdowns and several easy points.

"We had a little trouble with that (serve-receive)," Havens said. "They were kind of serving us off the court. We tried our best. We tried to make a couple adjustments. It just wasn't our night."

After Szczygiel's tip kill got the Lancers to match point, Lake Park sealed the match when the North Stars hit into the net.

"I thought we really got rolling in the second game," Baker said. "We served well and took care of our side of the ball. This time of the year this is what we want to be doing."

Szczygiel and Matt Ciaglia led that balanced attack with 7 kills each. Kreiser had 6, Proctor 5 and Mitev 3. McCown set 25 assists and Michael Gallo led the defense with 7 digs.

First-year St. Charles North coach Todd Weimer will have 10 seniors like Sullivan, Havens, Jeff Beach and Kevin Rose to replace but welcomes a JV team that went 20-13.

"I am extremely proud of these guys," Weimer said. "We have a good core of juniors coming up. Hopefully we will keep moving in this direction but it is going to be tough (to replace the seniors)."

"Ten seniors, it's a good way to go out," Havens said. "We all had a really good time. Coach is getting the program in the right direction. We like how it ended up."