RallyNorth.net

Mission (almost) accomplished

Wednesday, June, 05 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE — There was nothing ambiguous about Lawrence's mission objective and only one season outcome would satisfy the Lancers.

"Our goal was to win states," junior hitter Christian Taveras said. "Right from Day 1. We knew we had the potential. We just had to work for it."

After last night's rousing four-game victory over second-seeded St. John's Prep in the Division 1 North final, the Lancers are a mere two wins away from a successful season culmination.

With the 18-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-11 victory, top-seeded Lawrence (23-1) capped off a dominating regional in which it defeated three opponents by a combined 12-1.

The North finale, however, proved a difficult start as St. John's (20-4) took advantage of 10 unforced Lawrence errors en route to a convincing 25-18 victory. North Andover's Brian Keogh and Andover's Eric O'Connor led an Eagle front line that capitalized on its height advantage.

"Our (Tony Hajjar) coach just reminded us that we'd never played like this before," Taveras said. "We've never lost our first set besides against Chelmsford (in a 3-2 Lawrence April win). The minute we felt that loss, we didn't like it, so we had to pick things up."

The second set, which featured nine ties and four lead changes, proved key as Lawrence used a 9-2 run to finish off the Eagles.

"In Game 1 we blocked better than we had all season," Prep coach Scott Celli said. "In Game 2, it was partly them and partly us ... They started waling the ball on us and started dictating all the points.

The third set proved more of the same as Lawrence turned broke open a 13-13 tie by scoring 12 of the game's final 15 points.

"It was unbelievable," said Hajjar whose squad committed only nine errors the final two games. "This is a team that can always come back."

The final set proved anticlimatic as Lawrence jumped to a 17-4 advantage behind the heavy hitting of Anibal Henriquez, who had a team-high 17 blocks including seven in the fourth and Taveras, who had eight blocks.

Lawrence takes a 21-match winning streak into Saturday's state semifinal against Central champ Milford (20-1) on Saturday at a time and site to be announced. The Lancers suffered their only season to Milford in four games on April 8. Since that defeat, they have outscored their past 21 opponents by a combined 39-2. This is Lawrence's first Final Four trip since winning its only state tournament title in 2005.