AURORA, Ill. – The Lakeland College women's volleyball team pushed Aurora (Ill.) University to the brink, but the Spartans rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a five-set win Tuesday night in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament.
The fifth-seeded Muskies saw their season end in painful fashion in the first round of the conference tournament, as No. 4 seed Aurora came back to win 20-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-14, 15-13. Lakeland ends its season with a 17-17 record, while the Spartans (23-11) advance to a semifinal match with top-seeded Dominican (Ill.) University.
The Muskies pushed Aurora to the limit in every way. Lakeland outplayed the hosts in the first two sets and also rallied from a four-point deficit in the fifth set to tie the score at 13-13 before the Spartans closed out the match with the final two points.
The Muskies played just their second five-set match of the season, and the team's short bench took a toll as the match went on. The Spartans also picked up their play as the match went on, hitting .542 in the fourth set with 13 kills and zero errors and also attacking at a .316 clip in the final set.
Jenna Ward (
Jr.-Wisconsin Dells, Wis.) led Lakeland with 12 kills and also added a match-high five service aces. Lakeland hit .159 for the match with 53 kills and 26 errors in 170 attempts, and the Muskies also finished with 11 aces on the serve.
Courtney Naser (
Fr.-Altoona, Wis.),
Brittni Scoles (
Fr.-Kewaskum, Wis.) and
Allison Errthum (
Fr.-Joliet, Ill.) all finished with nine kills each and
Kathy Flanagan (
So.-Midlothian, Ill.) added eight kills. Errthum also led Lakeland with 16 digs, with
Caleigh Galvan (
Jr.-New Lenox, Ill.) adding 14 digs.
Taylor Levitt (
So.-Schaumburg, Ill.) set the offense with 49 assists.
Alexis Hammond finished with 13 kills to lead the Spartans, who hit .208 as a team and also finished with 15 team blocks. Aurora defeated Lakeland for the second time this season, as the Spartans also knocked off the Muskies in four sets on Oct. 10 in a regular season match at Aurora.
