CHICAGO – Backed into a corner over and over throughout the match, the Lakeland University women's volleyball team responded time and again and pulled out a four-set win over Illinois Institute of Technology Saturday afternoon at IIT's Keating Sports Center.

The Muskies fought for a 23-25, 25-20, 32-30, 25-20 victory for their fifth straight win. The win allowed Lakeland to clinch a spot in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament, and the Muskies already know their seeding and opening opponent. Fifth-seeded Lakeland will travel to take on No. 4 seed St. Norbert College Tuesday, Nov. 1 in the conference tourney first round.

The Muskies (15-12 overall, 8-4 NACC) return to the NACC Tournament after missing out last year, when Lakeland's 11-year string of qualifying for the tourney was snapped. They did so by handling all kinds of adversity on Saturday, including losing a tight first set, playing their longest set of the year in the third that included fighting off numerous set points, and also rallying from a sizeable deficit late in the fourth set.

The pivotal third set saw Lakeland on the brink of falling behind 2-1 in the match five times but saving five set points. The Muskies finally closed out the set with the final three points, taking advantage of a service error and a setting error by IIT and then getting a kill from Susana Stevens (So.-Las Cruces, N.M.) to finish the set.

Illinois Tech (14-9 overall, 6-6 NACC), which knocked off previously NACC undefeated Concordia University Wisconsin the night before, appeared set to push the match to a deciding fifth set, leading most of the way and building a 17-13 margin late. Lakeland would heat up, though, and scored 12 of the final 15 points, with six different players posting kills in the run.

The Muskies finished with a balanced attack with five players posting at least eight kills led by Stevens, Kelly Swope (Jr.-Heyworth, Ill.) and Brelynn Scoles (Jr.-Kewaskum, Wis.) all posting 11 kills each. Katie Metzler (Jr.-Kewaunee, Wis.) also finished with 10 kills and Isabella Westerholm (So.-Prior Lake, Minn.) added eight kills and just one error in 11 attacks for a .636 hitting percentage.

Maeve Sullivan (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) finished with 18 digs and Emily Duchow (Sr.-Potter, Wis.) added 39 assists and 13 digs. Hailey DeGrave (Jr.-Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) also posted 10 digs plus a match-high five service aces.

Briar Moore finished with a match-high 19 kills for IIT, which posted a better hitting percentage (.218) than Lakeland (.180) but committed 16 service errors. Kelsey Starnes also finished with 24 digs.

The Muskies close their NACC regular season schedule Wednesday when they travel to face Concordia University Wisconsin at 7 p.m. in Mequon.