Lakeland last time out: Defeated Rockford 3-2 last Friday
The Muskies survived a marathon with the Regents, edging out a 26-28, 29-27, 25-21, 22-25, 15-11 victory over the Regents in a non-conference match between the two Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference foes. The teams played for 2 hours 18 minutes, the longest match in Lakeland's 10-year history of varsity men's volleyball, six minutes longer than a previous 2:12 match against Carthage in 2017.

The teams combined for 48 ties and 26 lead changes, including 31 and 19, respectively, in the first two sets which both went past 25 points. Lakeland trailed 2-0 to start the fifth set but after a 5-5 tie took control with a 6-1 run. Ben Busalacchi finished with team highs of 17 kills and 14 digs, Levi Everts added 10 kills, freshman Chase Anderson pitched in 20 assists and 10 digs and Tim Matijevic added three service aces. The Muskies finished 2-0 on the day, also defeating Bryant & Stratton in three sets in what was officially an exhibition against the two-year school.

About the Lakers: Roosevelt is playing for the first time in 2023. The school comes up from Chicago and is in its third year sponsoring men's volleyball. The Lakers finished 0-20 last year, including a 0-13 record in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, losing 16 of their 20 matches in three sets with their closest match a five-set loss to Maranatha Baptist. Roosevelt was more sucessful in its first season in 2021 with a 3-12 record that included a four-set win over Judson in its first-ever match.

The Lakers featured a roster of just eight participating players last season but this year have a fuller cupboard with 15 players for second-year coach Kelly Magliano, including five returnees led by top attacker and blocker Shawn McCarthy and digs leader Christopher Fermaintt. Roosevelt also will begin the transition to NCAA Division II starting next year, eventually becoming a full member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2024-25.

Up the list: Ben Busalacchi has 25 kills in Lakeland's first two matches this season, and with that has moved into the top 10 on the Muskies' all-time varsity list for career kills. Busalacchi enters Thursday night with 269 career kills, and against Rockford passed Kyle Krogstad (266 kills from 2014-16) for 10th. It will be a while before he moves up further-up next on the list is Cameron Ekum (2018-22) in ninth with 430 career kills.