#8 Carthage College Firebirds (18-8 overall in 2023)
at Lakeland University Muskies (7-17 overall in 2023)
Monday, January 15, 2024Â Â 6 p.m.
Woltzen Gymnasium
Lakeland/Carthage Match Notes   PDF
After the teams' first attempt to play was snowed out, Lakeland University and nationally ranked Carthage College try again to begin their men's volleyball seasons when they meet Monday night at 6 p.m. at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.
The Muskies and Firebirds were slated to play Friday night, but the match was postponed for a forecasted winter storm that in the end dropped 12 inches of snow on the Sheboygan area before heavy winds followed. Instead they will meet three days later, with Lakeland hosting a Carthage team that enters the season ranked eighth in the AVCA/NVA NCAA Division III Top 20 Coaches Poll.
Broadcast Information:
Live video &Â statistics:Â
http://www.lakelandmuskies.com/muskieslive.
Series history:Â 12th meeting, Carthage leads 11-0
Carthage has owned the series with Lakeland, having won every meeting played since the schools first met in 2014. The Firebirds rolled to a three-set sweep last year in both teams' season opener in Kenosha Jan. 19, 2023, winning 25-15, 25-20, 25-19. Carthage also won the last meeting here at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium with a three-set sweep Feb. 2, 2021. Carthage has represented a holy grail of sorts for the Muskies, who have often played the perennially high-ranked team tough, including a trio of five-set losses plus a four-set loss in 2019. The teams have met every season but two since Lakeland's first season as a varsity program in 2014, missing out only in 2020 and 2022.
About Lakeland: The Muskies try again to open their season, after the originally scheduled opening date against Carthage on Friday was postponed due to the snowstorm that came though much of southern and eastern Wisconsin. Lakeland finished 7-17 overall a year ago and posted a 2-10 record in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The Muskies finished the season on a high note, defeating St. Norbert College in five sets in their season finale.
Lakeland returns five of six starters plus one of its two starting liberos from last year's very young team which was dominated by underclassmen. The Muskies have seven seniors but are still a young group in a number of ways, with just four of those seniors returning players from last year and three of them regulars in the lineup.
Ben Busalacchi is the team's leader and is a defending honorable mention Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference selection who a year ago led the team in kills, digs and service aces.
About Carthage: The Firebirds-ranked 8th in the AVCA/NVA NCAA Division III Top 20 Poll entering the season-come off an 18-8 record last year that included an 8-2 mark in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. The eight losses were the program's most since 2014, but the Firebirds still landed a bid to the Division III Tournament. Carthage defeated UC Santa Cruz in the first round before falling to CCIW rival North Central in the national quarterfinals.
Carthage is a seven-time qualifier for the Division III Tournament and won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. The Firebirds return the bulk of their roster from last year with the exception of their top two hitters. David Markes (181 kills) and Drew Jansen (147) still combined for 328 kills on a team that in 2023 finished 10th in D-III with a .296 hitting percentage.
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