Elusive title in L-W Central's reach

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Lincoln-Way Central hasn't won a conference championship in a long time. Monday, however, it moved a step closer to that elusive goal.

The Knights improved to 7-1 in the SouthWest Suburban Conference Red division after capturing a 25-11, 25-23 victory over Andrew in New Lenox.

"This was a big match for us conference-wise," Knights coach Joann Holverson said. "When I mentioned that we hadn't won conference since 1991, some of the boys said they weren't even born yet."

Lincoln-Way Central improved to 20-7 overall after rolling to an easy first-game win, then holding off the Thunderbolts (19-11, 5-3) in Game 2.

In the opening game, Corey Bingham (7 kills, 10 digs) served six straight points to give his team a 14-4 advantage. Bingham also served the final three points of Game 1, the Knights getting kills from Dan Tanjic (6 kills), Bingham and Andy Wingate (4 blocks, 4 kills) to close out the game.

Things were much more competitive in the second game. Neither team managed to hold a lead of more than three points.

After the Thunderbolts closed to within 22-21, Ryan Warning had a kill and James Cummins served an ace to give the Knights a 24-21 lead.

Andrew answered with a kill from Brett Panfil (7 kills) and a block by Jeff Staley (3 blocks) before Bingham finally ended the match with a kill.

Also for the Knights, Brian Thorp had six kills and 16 assists, Connor Wexter added nine assists, Bobby Brodinski had 10 digs and Kevin Zielezinski added eight digs.

Other leaders for the Thunderbolts were Sean Carls (15 assists), John Kim (4 kills) and Corey Grove (6 digs).

"In the first game we lined up wrong and we never really recovered," Andrew coach Troy Hari said. "We were a little too fired up in the first game but we settled down and were more focused after that."