MEQUON – A good start for the Lakeland University women's volleyball team fizzled into a four-set loss to Concordia University Wisconsin in both teams' Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference opener Wednesday night at R. John Buuck Fieldhouse.

The Muskies got off to a lightning-fast start against the perennial NACC contenders in winning the first set. Lakeland was unable to duplicate its early play the rest of the way and the Falcons rallied to win 17-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-15.

The Muskies (5-7 overall) couldn't have gotten off to a much better beginning, darting out to a 7-1 lead in the first set. Lakeland later turned away a brief mid-set rally by Concordia, scoring six straight points to take a 17-8 lead on the way to a convincing win.

Lakeland was competitive most of the second and third sets and even into the middle of the fourth, but the hosts had the answers the rest of the way. Concordia never trailed in the first set and led early in the second set as well, but the Falcons (6-4 overall) scored seven straight points in the middle of the set on the way to the win.

The pivotal third set included 12 ties and four lead changes and was set to be a barnburner down to the end when the Muskies held a 19-18 lead late. Lakeland would not score again in the set, as Concordia scored the final seven points of the set to deal the Muskies a disheartening blow.

Shannon Bishop (Sr.-River Grove, Ill.) and Abby Baumgartner (Jr.-Kewaunee, Wis.) both finished with nine kills, with Bishop officially clearing 1,000 kills for her career, but Lakeland hit .068 as a team with 35 kills and 26 errors. On the other side, Gabby Pavlik (12 kills), Megan Mayer (12 kills) and Kendall Stribling (11 kills) alone matched the Muskies' total for kills, and Pavlik hit .524 with just one error in 21 attacks while Stribling also hit at a .304 rate.

Sydney Pingitore (So.-Kenosha, Wis.) paced the back row defense with 16 digs and Baumgartner added 13 digs. Neenah Primas (Jr.-Oostburg, Wis.) finished with 29 assists and Erin Iwanski (Sr.-St. Francis, Ill.) totaled four blocks (one solo, three assisted). Bishop, Natalie Bova (Sr.-Chicago, Ill.) and Allison Byrne (Sr.-Luxemburg, Wis.) also all finished with two service aces each.

The Muskies are on the road next on Saturday when they go to the Holiday Inn Express Classic hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill. Lakeland will face Luther (Iowa) College at 10 a.m. and then takes on Earlham (Ind.) College at 12:30 p.m.