Boys volleyball: Lake Zurich hands Libertyville 1st loss in tourney final

Thanks to their ability to both obtain game control and seize it away from their opponent when needed, Lake Zurich was able to earn a hard-fought 25-17, 25-23 victory to pin the first defeat on Libertyville on Saturday.

The win came in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Palatine's East Gym to improve their record to 18-2 on the season at the Palatine-Schaumburg Invite.

"By the time we hit May we just want to be improving each day and we want to be playing our best ball come playoff time," Lake Zurich coach Brett Stuart said.

"Libertyville is a great team. They're always good. It's always a competitive match. We always have a lot of guys who play (together) on the same club teams and it's always a fun match."

In the opening game it used a 13-2 run to gain the upper hand thanks to a pair of services aces by senior outside hitter Gabe Schwartz and a pair kills from 6-9 senior setter Wyatt Jones. That left Lake Zurich up 16-7 allowing them to keep a cushion between them and the Wildcats. Libertyville (13-1) would get no closer than 21-16 when senior MH Jordan Coughlin connected for a kill off a feed from senior teammate Aarav Bamrolia.

Jones (7 kills, 2 assists, 1 block) would achieve the clinching set point off a pass from freshman Libero Nikola Stanojevic for game one.

Game two took a completely different turn as Lake Zurich needed to rally from a 20-16 deficit by going on a match-winning 9-3 surge. Senior middle Kuba Rytel (4 blocks, 1 kill) emphatically topped it off with back-to-back blocks to seal the deal.

Schwartz (3 kills, 2 aces, 1 block) credited getting the team back to full strength as it, along with him, dealt with early-season injuries.

"Once we got our whole team back it made a huge difference and our team chemistry has been great the past (few) days hanging out with all the (guys)," Schwartz said.

"The tough games are the best ones. That's what we like and we're just feeling good."

Libertyville coach Jenny Smith said her squad has been dealing with their own set of injuries.

"Today we were missing a couple of guys and sometimes that can come into play," Smith said.

"The ball control was up and down and we were working on trying to be really consistent but Lake Zurich is a really tough program. They've got some really talented guys and when the blocking is not quite right it's hard to defend."

Coughlin (5 kills) spoke of the learning experience that he and his teammates will take from this first setback on the season.

"This game definitely taught us a big lesson. To keep on pushing and not give up because I feel like toward the end we were falling apart and losing energy but this is a great game to play and I would love to see them back in sectionals," Coughlin said.