Above-average showing for L-W East

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For Lincoln-Way East, getting over the .500 mark felt pretty good Monday.

The Griffins beat Homewood-Flossmoor 25-14, 25-13 in a SouthWest Suburban crossover in Flossmoor to improve to 13-12 overall, 4-3 in the conference.

H-F fell to 8-14, 1-6.

"It's good to get over .500," Lincoln-Way East outside hitter Mike McKenzie said. "We're just hoping to prove ourselves a bit."

McKenzie had six kills to share team-high honors with Mike Mroz, who also contributed six digs and a block.

It was a balanced attack for the Griffins, who had eight players with at least three kills.

Lincoln-Way East rallied from a 5-4 deficit in the first game, pulling ahead for good with a 6-0 run. McKenzie and Justin Allen had kills in the run, and the Griffins benefited from two H-F hitting errors, a net violation and a rotation violation.

The Vikings hung tough and drew to 11-8, but another 6-0 Lincoln-Way East run gave the Griffins a comfortable lead.

McKenzie and Nick Janky (4 kills) had two kills each in the stretch, Mike Bolhuis (3 kills) added a kill and Scott Burke (30 assists, 3 kills) contributed an ace for Lincoln-Way East.

The Griffins cruised from there, with Allen scoring the final two points of the game on a kill and a block.

"We were just hitting on all cylinders," McKenzie said. "Everyone was contributing."

Lincoln-Way East took the "everyone contributes" mantra further in the second game. Every starter except for setter Burke were replaced by substitutes for the second game.

The second string proved fully capable. The Griffins never trailed in pulling out a close game to end the match.

"It's nice to get everybody a chance to get in the game, and it was nice to see them play so well," Lincoln-Way East coach Dawn Murphy said.

Mroz and Trevor Miroslaw (4 kills) each had three kills as the Griffins grabbed a 12-10 lead.

Lincoln-Way East led 21-20 when Burke surprised the Vikings. Burke hit an offspeed shot that fell among the H-F players who were expecting him to set the ball.

H-F battled back to win two of the next three points on kills by Matt Green and Mikey Matasar to pull within 23-22, but Mroz, who didn't play in Game 1, finished off the match with two big kills.

"I definitely could not have done it without Burke's sets," Mroz said. "It really helps when you have a great team around you.

"I feel like we're definitely peaking right now. We're at the top of our game and we're a team no one wants to play."

Matasar led H-F with seven kills. Danny Gallagher had five and Dan Palumbo had four.

Ryan Wallenga contributed eight digs for the Griffins.