Lake Park coach Tim Murphy had a few words of advice for setter Quin Krisik after a disastrous first game Friday at the Conant Sectional.
“Feed the beast.”
The “beast,” aka Shawn Fritsche, had eight of his 11 kills in Games 2 and 3, Sean Moore also had 11 kills, Dominick Terry added 10 kills and Krisik had 34 assists as the Lancers rallied to defeat Addison Trail 18-25, 25-15, 25-13.
Lake Park (31-6) will play Barrington (29-8) for the sectional title Tuesday at 7 p.m. But early on, Lake Park seemed headed to an early exit after Addison Trail stormed out of the blocks to take Game 1.
“We didn’t have a whole lot of energy in Game 1,” Fritsche said. “The bench was a little quiet. The guys on the court feed off our bench. We also didn’t have good passing in the first game. It wasn’t high enough. It was just on the 10-foot line. It was predictable and we really couldn’t run middle.
“When we were on the sidelines between games my coach (Tim Murphy) just said, ‘Feed the beast,’ and that’s just what kind of happened. I felt like I was hot. I saw the block really well, I swung around it and he (Krisik) just kept feeding me. It felt right. It felt right.”
Meanwhile, everything that went right for Addison Trail in Game 1 went wrong in Games 2 and 3.
“Our passing went away a little in Game 2 and their’s picked up,” Addison Trail coach Chad Grant said. “That’s why we won the first game, because of their passing. In Game 2. A lot of it was also our inability to hit the ball over the net.
“Lake Park also has a tendency to lose the first game and come back strong the next two. They did what they normally do and they executed better than us. They just made more plays than we did.”
The loss spoiled a magnificent effort from Addison Trail junior Alex Dickmann, who had 21 kills. Anthony Chiaramonte added six kills and Kevin Grygo had 32 assists.
“Addison Trail came out and played really, really well in that first game,” Lake Park coach Tim Murphy said. “As I said to the guys, they outplayed us in Game 1. They blocked much better than we did and they played much better defense than we did.
“We’ve been in that situation before. We’ve gone three games a lot this season. We’ve lost the first game. I never got nervous. I believe in our guys and I believe they can rally back and that’s basically what we did.”
