Hard-hitting Larkin gets the best of Elgin

Larkin likes to rely on its hitting to win volleyball games.

When the offense isn't quite clicking, it goes right to the block.

The Royals' play at the net, both offensively and defensively, propelled them to a 25-20, 26-24 Upstate Eight Conference victory over Elgin at Elgin's Chesebrough Field House Tuesday.

"We're a pretty good hitting squad," said Larkin middle Mike Flowers, who finished the game with 5 blocks. "We can come out blasting sometimes. (Against Elgin) the block was working every time. I came out and I was confident that our team would come up with blocks."

The Royals (5-21, 1-5) finished the game with 10 blocks, including Flowers' match-point stop. Elgin (1-19, 0-7) had tied the game at 24 when Sawan Patel recorded a kill. Larkin roared back with a quick kill from Stephen Dominguez to regain a 25-24 advantage before Flowers' block ended the match.

Dominiguez finished the match with 5 kills and 15 digs for the Royals.

Elgin went up by as much as 12-7, its biggest lead of the match, in Game 2 after failing to lead after 1-0 in Game 1, but couldn't sustain the advantage. Larkin had tied the game at 14 off a pair of hitting errors, but the preceding point came off a Flowers block to bring Larkin to within 14-13. The two teams would tie again 6 more times before the end of the match. Larkin would gain the upper hand scoring the first point in 4 of those ties.

"We're a tall team and we try to be as big as possible at the net weather it's on offense or defense," Royals' coach Henry Graack said.

After trailing 1-0 to open the match, Larkin would not trail again in the first game. The Royals forced Elgin into a catch-up situation early on jumping ahead 4-1. Even after Elgin tied the game at 10, Larkin rattled off 5 straight points to go up 15-10, with Matt Harris notching 2 of his 3 aces during the 5-0 run. Harris also added a team-high 11 assists in the victory.

Elgin would again come within 17-16 but could never get over the hump. Larkin responded with a tip kill from Harris and a pair of hard-hit kills from Dominiguez to go up 20-16.

"We're a point-by-point team," Elgin coach Keith Foster said. "Some points can't be stopped and some points we stopped ourselves."

Kevin Vongnaphone added 14 digs for the Royals.