Girls volleyball: Lake Park impresses in opener

The unusual, short spring volleyball season may not have included a state series and may have made it difficult to gauge the future for some programs, but it did manage to give Lake Park a glimpse of what should be a fun couple of years.

The Lancers returned five starters from this past spring and the roster is filled with several talented juniors, including setter Kateryna Hlyuta. The players bonded during a chaotic spring that saw the club and high school seasons collide, and now Lake Park looks ready to have a strong regular season, one which opened with a 25-22, 25-16 victory at Addison Trail on Tuesday.

Hlyuta and her teammates kept their composure after falling behind to the Blazers 20-17 in the first set and rallied to take the opener after closing with an 8-2 run. A crisper second set by the visitors led to the sweep.

"I think the beginning was a little slow. We didn't have much energy, but I felt toward the end of the game, especially with the fan crowd, it gave us more energy," said Hlyuta, a junior who had 11 assists and 2 kills. "We all got together and played as a team and we communicated more toward the end of the game so I think that is what helped us."

Lancers coach Brian Fischer, who took over the program last year, saw a lot of his talented junior class when they were sophomores. The balanced attack against the Blazers was led by junior middle hitter Cailin Shannon and junior outside Michela Barbanente, who also had a team-high 7 digs. It was this youthful experience that kept the team together after Addison Trail went on a 9-4 run to take leads of 19-16 and 20-17 late in the first set.

"I told the girl at that 20-17 point, in the timeout, that if you don't believe that you're in the game still, it's already over. Just walk off and say 'set two'," Fischer said. "You have to come together and believe in yourself because this game is not over. All we need is a side-out, maybe a couple points on the service line, so forth, and they did it. They stepped up. They didn't hold their heads being down late in the game. So that's a proud moment to look at and something we can build off of in the future."

The second set was tied at 11-11 before the Lancers finished strong. Shannon recorded back-to-back kills to extend the lead to 17-13 and 6-foot-3 middle Jillian Gibbons clinched the win with a block kill at match point.

"We have a lot of returners and the majority of them are juniors which is exciting," Fischer said. "Knowing that last year, having them start so young, it was something I as a first-year coach knew we had something to look forward to. To continue to mold them."

Freshman Samantha Kuman had a pair of kills and four digs and looks primed to be a solid newcomer for Lake Park this fall.

For the Blazers, Kennedy Smith led the way with four kills and Diana Villegas added three in Katie Inzinga's head coaching debut. Charlotte Cahill chipped in with two kills and two blocks.

"It was rough," Inzinga said of the ending to the first set. "But we have nine seniors and they're working hard every day. They're just grinding. What you saw tonight is what practice looks like. It's awesome. They're focused. They got a lot of energy. They're glad to play. Glad to have a season and the fan section was awesome tonight."