The Lakeland University women's volleyball team spent most of the night playing from behind and never could get its footing, falling to Edgewood College in three sets Tuesday at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.
The defending Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season champion Eagles started fast and went on to a 25-15, 25-22, 25-21 win. Edgewood continued to surge with its fifth straight win and the Muskies were turned back by one of the conference's better teams for the second straight match.
Lakeland (10-11 overall, 3-3 NACC) never led in the first two sets and struggled on the attack throughout. The Muskies hit just .073 for the match with 31 kills and 22 errors and never could turn momentum even when they did make a run in the third set.
Madison Schweitzer (
Fr.-Thornton, Ill.) served a trio of aces early in that third set, helping Lakeland to an 8-0 run and a 12-7 lead, its first lead of the match. Edgewood (13-10 overall, 5-1 NACC) soon responded, though, and had already tied it back up by the midway mark at 13-13.
The score was still tied at 21-all, but the Muskies would not score again. The Eagles would finish it off without a single kill, posting an ace, a block and taking advantage of a service error and a hitting error to wrap it up.
Edgewood never allowed an expectant crowd to get involved in the match, leading start to finish in the first and second sets. The Eagles showed the mettle of a program that has won three of the last four NACC regular season titles that remains one of the teams to beat in the conference, winning even with a faily pedestrian .157 attack percentage with 36 kills and 17 errors.
Allison Errthum (
Jr.-Joliet, Ill.) led the attack with 10 kills and also added 10 digs.
Emma Bruder (
So.-Frankfort, Ill.) led the team with 15 digs,
Taylor Levitt (
Sr.-Schaumburg, Ill.) added 13 digs and Schweitzer posted 27 assists, eight digs and three aces.
Emily Chaussee led Edgewood with nine kills and 13 digs and Elizabeth Evans added 14 digs, six kills and three block assists. Renee Meister also added seven kills and five blocks (two solo, three assisted).
Lakeland is right back in action tomorrow when it travels to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for a non-conference match at 7 p.m.
