The Lakeland College men's volleyball team completed the last-weekend rally it needed and will extend its season for at least another weekend after defeating Benedictine (Ill.) University in four sets Saturday afternoon at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Muskies held off the Eagles for a 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 25-19 victory to clinch a spot in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League Tournament. Lakeland will be the No. 3 seed and will face second-seeded Milwaukee School of Engineering in the semifinals of the four-team, single-elimination tourney which will be held April 8-9 and hosted by Carthage College in Kenosha.

The Muskies entered the weekend in a three-way tie for fourth place in the MCVL and needing to defeat nationally ranked Dominican (Ill.) University last night and Benedictine on Saturday to get into the conference tournament. Lakeland surpassed all four teams by winning both matches and also saw Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) University lose to the league's top two teams (Carthage and MSOE).

Lakeland wasn't quite as hot on Saturday as it was the night before in a three-set demolition of Dominican that saw the team finish with a near-.400 hitting percentage with 41 kills and just seven attack errors. The Muskies were solid on the attack, though, hitting .193 (41 kills, 19 errors in 135 attempts) but also excelled on defense with 16.5 team blocks.

Lakeland was in charge in the first two sets before running into trouble in a heated third set, as the Eagles led most of the set and withstood a late Muskies' comeback to get back into the match. Lakeland also fell behind 10-7 in the fourth set but scored six of the next seven points and would never trail again.

Desmond Williams (Fr.-Riverside, Calif.) recorded nine block assists alone, Dan Matijevic (Jr.-Palatine, Ill.) finished with six blocks (one solo, five assisted) and Tim Robbins (Jr.-Wheaton, Ill.) also added five assisted blocks. Lakeland's dominance at the net contributed heavily to the Eagles hitting .043 with 43 kills and 37 errors.

Matt Stolz (Jr.-Wauwatosa, Wis.) paced the attack with 15 kills, Matijevic added 11 kills, Casey Bolda (Jr.-Honolulu, Hawaii) chipped in nine and Robbins also added eight.

Saturday also was Senior Day, and the Muskies honored lone senior Kyle Krogstad (Chicago, Ill.), who also tied with Bolda for the team lead in digs. Stolz added 12 digs, while Addison Mertler (Fr.-Boca Raton, Fla.) set the offense with 42 assists and also added four blocks (one solo, three assisted) and two service aces.

Lakleand's match against MSOE will begin at 4 p.m. Friday, April 8, and will be the first of two semifinal matches. No. 4 seed Dominican will take on top seed Carthage in the second semi at 7 p.m., and the two winners will square off in the championship match next Saturday at 2 p.m.