Rested Lake Zurich zips past GBN

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:14PM

Despite playing its first match in 1 1/2 weeks, third-seeded Lake Zurich showed few signs of rust in its second win of the season against Glenbrook North.

Amanda Orchard had a match-high 14 kills to lead the Bears to a 25-9, 25-20 victory Tuesday night in the Class 4A Glenbrook North Regional semifinal. Orchard's kills total equaled Glenbrook North's entire team for the match. Patricia Hare and Kristen Arnspong had four kills each for the 14th-seeded Spartans (17-16).

Senior Alexis Hartman had 20 assists and four blocks for the Bears (24-7), who will play sixth-seeded Lake Forest (23-9) in the regional final at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"We beat Lake Forest before (in two sets)," Hartman said. "We're looking forward to them. It should be a good matchup."

Lake Zurich, which beat Glenbrook North 25-17, 25-22 on Sept. 16, jumped out to an 18-5 lead in the first set. Orchard had eight of her kills in the second set when the Bears led 7-1, but the Spartans slowly rallied to come within 14-13.

Hartman picked up three of her blocks in the second set and had back-to-back blocks against Glenbrook North season kills leader Jenny Huh (two kills) to give LZ a 17-13 lead.

Natalie Gora and Dori Darras added four kills each for Lake Zurich, which outblocked the Spartans 10-0.

"We practiced real hard," LZ coach Matt Aiello said about the long layoff. "We worked on speed and intensity. We are prepared and have been preparing for Saturday. The focus was on preparing for this and for Saturday."

Glenbrook North d. Buffalo Grove 25-19, 25-18: The outside-hitter combination of Huh (10 kills) and Hare (eight kills) eliminated the 19th-seeded Bison (5-31) earlier Thursday in the regional quarterfinal.

The Spartans ended the four-year career for BG kills leader Alanna Zawlocki (four kills).

Glenbrook North led 16-6 in the first set and 16-10 in the second set to prevent the Bison from making a comeback. BG pulled to within 21-18 in the second set, but the Spartans scored the last four points including back-to-back kills by Hare and an ace by Huh to end the match.

"It was a lot of fun playing with all the girls. I had fun," said Zawlocki, who played middle hitter for three out of her four years after playing right-side hitter last season.

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