Young squeaks into finals

Three weeks ago, without two starters, Young fell to Lane in the Northside tourney. Playing without two starters yet again, the Dolphins were looking to avenge that loss, but with  a trip to the city finals on the line.

Young survived, defeating the Indians 25-20, 26-24 in a Public League semifinal Wednesday at Northside.

It wasn’t easy for the Dolphins. Lane led 15-11 halfway through the first set when something clicked for the Dolphins. They rattled off a 14-5 run to end the set, giving them the 25-20 win.

“Once we put a couple balls down, we became more confident,’’ said senior Tom Wesolowski, who had three kills of his game-high 16 kills in the closing run. “We just needed to refocus on what we had to do.’’

Much like the first set, the second started off as a back-and-forth affair. This time the roles were reversed, as Young built a four-point lead and had four match points.

Lane fended off all of the Dolphins’ match points, tying the score at 24-24 on an error by Wesolowski. The senior made up for it on the next two plays, as he put down a kill and served an ace for the win.

With the victory, Young (17-12) advances to play Payton in the city finals at UIC Friday at 5:30. It will be a rematch of last year’s title match, which was won by Young. Payton won the teams’ only match this season, April 2, in three sets.

“It’s a huge rivalry,’’ Wesolowski said. “It’s always Young and Payton, Young and Payton. We know their strengths are Earl [Schultz] and Alex [Bresler]. We can’t shut them down completely, because they’re going to score. But we will have to contain them.’’

Zakir Pasha had six kills for Lane.

Link to story: http://bit.ly/10SeKyS

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