Lake Park offense ‘clicks’ en route to tournament opening win

Lake Park’s Quin Krisik is a student of history.

“Last year in this (Downers South) tournament we lost in pool play and we remember that,” he said. “We always remember stuff from last year. We’re pretty much the same team. I think it helps us to focus more when we remember what we did instead of just coming out here and playing.”

Lake Park (16-2) made certain that history did not repeat itself Friday. The Lancers broke a 14-14 tie in Game One with a 7-1 run and rolled to a 25-17, 25-13 victory over Glenbrook South in both teams’ tournament opener.

Krisik led Lake Park with 30 assists, Dominick Terry had 11 kills, Jeff Yost added six kills and three blocks, and libero Anthony Amore contributed eight digs. Sean Moore, Derek Burke and Shawn Fritsche each had four kills.

Glenbrook South (8-6) took a brief 7-5 lead in Game One on a block by Sam Manzella, but Lake Park quickly tied the set at 7-7 on a crosscourt smash by Yost. Four ties followed, the last at 14-14 before a kill by Fritsche sparked the Lancers’ big run.

“The difference was our defense and our positioning,” Krisik said. “At the beginning, we were executing physically but we weren’t in the right spots. Coach (Tim Murphy) told us at a timeout that we needed to be in the right spots.

“We got to the spots, we started playing good defense and that’s what made the difference.”

Moore’ block at set point ended an 11-3 run by the Lancers.

“We caught them in the bad rotation,” Murphy said. “We wanted to key on (6-7 Anthony Lebryk). He’s their best hitter. They had him hitting out of the middle, so when they weren’t passing well they didn’t have anywhere else to go.

“We just try to focus on limiting errors early in the match and getting our energy going early. We’ve played three games in a lot of our recent matches, so that’s our focus. Getting started early. That’s what I tell the guys.”

Glenbrook South quickly fell behind 12-7 in the second set, prompting a timeout, but the Titans could not stop the bleeding.

“They are a legitimate team,” Glenbrook South coach Tim Monahan said. “The only thing we were missing was my libero (pneumonia), so we got different defensive guys in there. But that being said, our ballhandling wasn’t there. Their up-tempo stuff was clicking and that stuff is hard to block.

“They’re also a good serving team. They kept us on our heels.”

Lebryk had six kills and Wes Blodig added 16 assists for Glenbrook South.

Elsewhere in pool play Friday, No. 1 seed Loyola (13-1) overcame the absence of its two starting middle hitters to turn back Oak Park 25-17, 29-27, No. 12 seed Maine South (12-4) stunned fifth-seeded Glenbard East 25-21, 23-25, 25-21, and Deerfield (11-3) advanced to the Gold division by beating Niles West 25-21, 25-23 and Evanston 25-23, 25-19.