Lakeland University commences a new athletics year on Labor Day weekend starting with competitions for a pair of teams Friday.

The Muskies women's volleyball team is on the road in Texas for the weekend at the Austin College Classic and University of Dallas Tournament. Lakeland begins play with two matches in Sherman, Texas, on Friday, including its season opener against another team traveling for the tourney when it takes on St. John Fisher (N.Y.) University at 2 p.m. The Muskies will then face host school Austin College at 6 p.m. before heading south just over an hour for two more matches in Dallas on Saturday.

The Muskies men's soccer team also begins its season Friday night, on the road but with a much shorter trip. Lakeland will take on Elmhurst (Ill.) University at 7:30 p.m. in Elmhurst.

The women's volleyball team plays in Texas for the first time since 2006, when it participated in a tournament hosted by Southwestern (Texas) University. The matches will be a homestand of sorts for four Texas natives on the Muskies' roster: senior Briuna Harper (Waxachachie, Texas), juniors D'Janae Gilley (El Paso, Texas) and Kaitlyn Ramirez (El Paso, Texas) and freshman Rylee Esquibel (Devine, Texas).

Lakeland finished 15-12 last year including 9-4 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The Muskies are led by head coach Ryan Schopf in his 11th year leading the program, and the team returns three starters from last year including Harper, senior Susana Stevens (Las Cruces, N.M.) and junior Katelyn Kitsembel (Lake Mills, Wis.).

The Lakeland men's soccer team also gets an early start on the first allowed day of competition, taking on Elmhurst for the second straight year. The Bluejays defeated the Muskies 3-0 in a non-conference match last year in October at Lakeland.

Interim head coach Kyle Quintell leads the Muskies into this season after serving as an assistant to former coach Rick Mobley for the past four years. Lakeland posted a 4-12-2 overall record last year and went 3-8-1 in the NACC, and this year returns leading scorer Michael Barragan (Sr.-Milwaukee, Wis.) and goalkeeper Zach Heiman (Sr.-Racine, Wis.).

Information on the Austin College and University of Dallas tourneys, including live video and statistics links, is available at https://www.acroos.com/sports/wvball/tournament/2024_austin_college_classic.

Live video for the men's soccer match will be available at https://www.youtube.com/@ElmhurstBluejaysTV. Live statistics will be at https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?gid=elmh.