Aurora University Spartans (9-8 overall, 3-0 NACC)
at Lakeland University Muskies (6-9 overall, 1-2 NACC)
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023Â Â 4 p.m.
Woltzen Gymnasium
Homecoming
Lakeland/Aurora Match Notes PDF
Lakeland University's Homecoming Saturday includes another sport offering as the Muskies women's volleyball team hosts Aurora University at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon for a key NACC match, right after the Lakeland-St. Norbert football game.
Broadcast InformationÂ
Live video and live statistics:Â
http://www.lakelandmuskies.com/muskieslive.
Series history:Â 24th meeting, Lakeland leads 12-11
The series between the Muskies and Spartans has been a competitive one since the teams' first meeting in 2001. Aurora has won the last two times the teams have met, including a 29-27, 21-25, 25-19, 27-25 victory in a long four-setter down in Illinois Oct. 7, 2022. The Spartans also won the last time the teams met here at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium, prevailing 25-22, 25-23, 25-20 in 2021. Lakeland's last win over the Spartans was a four-set victory at home Oct. 5, 2019, a win that snapped Aurora's 17-match Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference winning streak. In the all-time series, Lakeland won the first two meetings and eight of the first ten before Aurora won seven of the next ten matchups, including four in a row from 2016-18.Â
Lakeland last time out: Defeated Dominican 3-0 Thursday
The Muskies won for the first time this season in conference play and the first time at home, disposing of the Stars 25-19, 25-19, 25-20. Lakeland held Dominican to a .034 attack percentage and made the plays late in all three sets to defeat the Stars for the second straight season.
Katelyn Kitsembel set a career high with 18 digs to lead the Muskies' good back row defense, and
Katie Metzler finished with nine kills. Freshman setter
Emily Dickmann also added 19 assists and had five kills without an error in seven attacks.Â
The Muskies won in just their third home match of the season, and first since Sept. 6. Lakeland also added seven service aces and six assists to win convincingly even with a fairly middling .145 hitting percentage.
Aurora last time out: Won at Rockford 3-0 Thursday
The Spartans remained undefeated in the NACC with a 25-13, 25-21, 25-17 victory on the road against the Regents. Riley Moreno piled up 16 kills with just two errors in 24 attacks (.583 hitting percentage), Kate Poellmann added 11 kills and Hannah Joseph 44 assists, all in just three sets. Hannah Evenson also added 22 digs and Lulu Torres also finished with nine kills plus 14 digs.
Like Lakeland, Aurora has played a difficult non-conference schedule, including three losses to nationally ranked teams. The Spartans under coach James Seitelman have become one of the NACC's top programs, winning at least a share of five straight regular season titles plus four tournament championships.
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