About Lakeland: The Muskies come into the season with an experienced team that also left a good impression in its last game of 2021-22 that only added to the anticipation for this year. Lakeland finished 13-13 last season and alternated wins and losses over its final 13 games, but the Muskies nearly pulled a big upset in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament quarterfinals, falling to top seed and eventual champion Wisconsin Lutheran by a point.

Lakeland returns all five starters from that team, including point guard Kacey Gardner, who was an honorable mention all-NACC pick and is on pace to set the school record for career assists. Kerstin Sauerbrei also made 64 three-pointers a year ago, third-most in a season in school history, and junior Alexa Yost started each of her first two years. The Muskies were picked seventh in the NACC's preseason poll of league coaches and sports information directors.

About UW-Oshkosh: The Titans had a very good season last year, finishing 22-7 overall, qualifying for the NCAA Division III Tournament and winning three games to be one of the final eight teams standing before falling to conference rival UW-Whitewater in the national quarterfinals. UWO finished the season ranked 12th in the D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, but this year's team looks much different. Four starters and six of the eight players who averaged at least 10 minutes per game are gone, leaving a largely inexperienced team that includes eight freshmen and just two seniors.

Kennedy Osterman (4.2 ppg, 2.9 rpg) is the lone returning starter, while third-leading scorer Jenna Jorgensen (8.1 ppg) also returns. The Titans still enter the season ranked 22nd in the D3hoops.com poll, and 11th-year head coach Brad Fischer has led teams that have won at least 20 games nine consecutive years.

Muskies in openers, vs. WIAC: All-time records are incomplete, but in records going back to 1981, Lakeland is 22-19 in season opening games. The Muskies lost to UW-Oshkosh in their season opener a year ago, but their last win to begin the season also came against a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference school, a 55-53 win over UW-River Falls in Nov. 2018. This also marks the second straight year Lakeland has hosted a WIAC member. The Muskies fell to UW-Stevens Point 57-50 last year.

Lakeland has faced schools from the NCAA Division III Wisconsin state schools conference a total of 48 times since 1982-83. The Muskies hold an 11-37 record in those games, and their 13 meetings with Oshkosh are the most against any WIAC school.

Hunting a record: Kacey Gardner enters this season with 301 assists, a number ranking fourth-best in school history. She is 39 assists away from tying the school record of her assistant coach Kayla Clark, who totaled 340 assists from 2013-17. Gardner is 13 assists behind Diane Kipp (1985-89) for third on the all-time list.