A balanced attack led the way as the Lakeland College women's volleyball team clinched its spot in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament with a three-set sweep of Milwaukee School of Engineering Tuesday night at the Woltzen Gymnasium.
The Muskies eased by the Raiders 25-18, 25-19, 25-15 to improve to 12-14 overall and 6-3 in the NACC. With Concordia University Chicago's loss to Benedictine (Ill.) University on Tuesday, Lakeland is guaranteed to finish no worse than a tie for sixth in the conference, and with the tiebreaker already over Concordia the Muskies became the fifth team to clinch one of the six spots in the NACC Tournament.
Lakeland defeated MSOE (11-13 overall, 2-7 NACC) with six players finishing with at least four kills and no one player with more than eight. The Muskies hit .230 as a team with 41 kills and 15 attack errors and also rung up seven service aces as a team.
Lakeland was in control in all three sets, trailing only briefly in all three. The Muskies used a 5-1 run early in the first set, six straight points in the second set and a 7-1 run in the third set to lead by at least five points by the time they reached the 10-point mark in all three sets.
LeShay Jones (
Sr.-Pontiac, Mich.) led with eight kills, while
Kathy Flanagan (
Jr.-Midlothian, Ill.),
Courtney Naser (
So.-Altoona, Wis.) and
Brittini Scoles (
So.-Kewaskum, Wis.) all added seven kills each.
Allison Errthum (
So.-Joliet, Ill.) also pitched in five kills as well as 13 digs,
Taylor Levitt (
Jr.-Schaumburg, Ill.) totaled four kills and a match-high 28 assists, and
Caleigh Galvan (
Sr.-New Lenox, Ill.) paced all participants with 19 digs.
Leah Hendricks led MSOE with seven kills while Hannah Pekarek finished with 16 digs. The Raiders hit just .051 for the match with 20 kills and 15 errors in 98 attack attempts.
Lakeland is home again Friday night when it welcomes Aurora (Ill.) University at 7 p.m. The Muskies and Spartans are currently tied for fourth in the NACC with matching 6-3 records, and the winner will have the inside track on a home match in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
