Galat gives Lakes a winning effort

This Richard Galat fellow has a good plan.

He can even visualize the helicopter rides as he travels the country, and maybe the world, to help out folks in trouble.

Next year, Galat, a Lakes senior, will attend Purdue in search of a flight nursing degree.

On Wednesday night, this future hero played the role as the best volleyball player in the building. Lakes registered its 10th win of the season in boys volleyball, in good part because of 15 kills from Galat as the Eagles stopped rival Antioch 25-23, 25-17.

Wait a minute - isn't that the Antioch team that has only one win? How did the Sequoits (1-12) manage to stay in this contest?

Granted, coach Jamie Atkinson's Antioch squad is young, but it wasn't about to hand the Eagles an easy victory. The Sequoits were digging up plenty of sure hits and blocking well at the net.

"Their libero (Andrew Gagnon) was awesome,'' said Lakes coach, Katie Cheek, an Antioch graduate. "He was getting everything up."

Gagnon is a senior for Antioch. So his hitter Troy Mayer, who was wearing a mask after sustaining a broken nose in a match against Warren. Still, Mayer played well at the net.

The first set was as close as it could be. Mayer checked in with a block with teammate Lucas Winters serving, and surprising Antioch was up 9-6.

"That first game was great - besides that we lost,'' Atkinson said.

Antioch still led 18-16 in set one.

"We didn't want to underestimate anyone,'' Cheek said.

Nathan Borries of Antioch had the kill that knotted this set up at 23-23. Finally, Lakes' power hitter, Dalton Solbrig, blasted the game-winning kill in set one.

Galat, who also plays soccer, knew Antioch would come to play.

"They are always going to play us close,'' Galat said. "Every game in soccer, we would lose. They always play us tough."

Evidently, the close match in set one woke up the Eagles. They were not really threatened in the second set. Galat was in the middle of the attack on the Sequoits. One of his last kills of the night extended the Lakes lead to 18-10.

"We were too sloppy in that second set to win,'' Atkinson said. "We kind of got lost in the flow."

Lakes had a chance to use a 6-2 offense in this match. Setter Zach Powell joined the varsity and teamed with Colton Jewell to run the offense. Jewell also helped out the offense with 4 kills, and Solbrig also had 4.

Galat likes playing for this team.

"We are good,'' he said. "We still have a lot of young players."

And Cheek is glad to have Galat on her first Lakes boys team.

"He was awesome tonight,'' Cheek said. "He came ready to play and was ready to push us to victory."