PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University women's volleyball team saw its 10-match winning streak and its season end Tuesday night with a three-set loss to Concordia University Wisconsin Tuesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
The Falcons seized control early to dominate the first two sets and stole the third set late too to finish a 25-14, 25-11, 29-27 win. Fifth-seeded Concordia advanced to the tourney semifinals to face top seed Edgewood University, while the No. 4 seed Muskies saw their season end with a 16-14 record.
Lakeland defeated Concordia (16-12 overall) just 17 days earlier with a five-set win on the road in Mequon, a victory that wound up earning the Muskies the tiebreaker with both teams finishing 10-3 on the conference regular season loop. Lakeland also was buoyed by a large and boisterous crowd that remained engaged in the Muskies' first NACC women's volleyball tourney match at home since 2019.
Lakeland was plagued by errors this time, though, finishing with 32 kills and 29 errors for a .027 attack percentage. The Muskies hit in the negative in each of the first two sets and finished with their second-lowest hitting percentage of the season, and far below the team's season mark of .201 coming in.
Lakeland scored four of the match's first five points but Concordia responded with 19 of the next 21 points to take a 20-6 lead in the opening set. The Falcons also took charge of the second set quickly as well, taking leads of 9-2 and 18-5 on the way to taking a 2-0 lead in the match.
Concordia played nearly error-free with just five errors on the attack and two service errors over the first two sets. The Falcons cooled off in the third set and the Muskies steadied and appeared on their way to extending the match to a fourth set.
Lakeland scored eight straight points early in the third to turn a 5-3 deficit into an 11-5 lead.
Samya Hughes (
Fr.-Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) heated up with three kills in the run and
Faith Baker (
So.-Verona, Ill.) added a solo block.
The Muskies kept a working margin and were up seven late in the set at 21-14 after a block by Baker and
Sydney Gay (
So.-Rice Lake, Wis.). Concordia came back with the next seven points, though, with two kills and a service ace sandwiching four consecutive attack errors by Lakeland. The teams then went back and forth but the Falcons reached match point at 24-23, and after alternating the next eight points CUW finally finished it with a block on the fifth match point.
Hughes posted 13 kills and
Maleigha Kovalaske (
So.-Ripon, Wis.) added 12 kills, but no other Muskies posted more than three kills. Gay paced the team with 26 assists and eight digs and Baker added three blocks (one solo, two assisted).
Along with the attack struggles, Lakeland also posted just one ace to eight service errors, five more errors than the Falcons. Concordia also posted a 9-5 advantage in blocks and finished hitting .213 with 34 kills and 14 errors.
