The Lakeland University women's volleyball and men's soccer teams will be the first to see official action when both teams open their regular seasons Friday on the road for non-conference matches.

The Muskies women's volleyball team will be up first, taking part in the Chick-fil-A Invitational hosted by St. Norbert College in De Pere. Lakeland will open against Lawrence University at 3 p.m. and later takes on the College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) at 8 p.m.

The Muskies men's soccer team also opens its season Friday night, taking on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point at 7 p.m. in Stevens Point.

Lakeland faces Lawrence in women's volleyball for the first time in six years, since the teams met also in De Pere and the Muskies swept the Vikings 3-0. Lakeland has won the last three meetings in the series.

Lawrence match Live Video
St. Scholastica match Live Video
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The Muskies will be looking to improve on a 10-19 overall record last year that included an 8-5 mark in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Lakeland finished fifth in the NACC last year and lost in the first round of the NACC Tournament and was picked to finish fifth again in the conference's preseason poll of league coaches and sports information directors.

Returnees include Rylee Esquibel (So.-Devine, Texas), named honorable mention all-conference as a freshman who played all six rotations around the court, and libero Ryan Figi (Jr.-Hartland, Wis.), who piled up a team-high 372 digs last year.

The Lakeland men's soccer team faces UW-Stevens Point for the second straight season. The teams met for the first time last year, with the Pointers prevailing 2-0 for their first win in program history in their first season.

UWSP Live Video
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UWSP went on to finish 8-8-4 last year, including 2-0-3 against Lakeland's NACC brethren. The Muskies posted a 4-14-1 record in Kyle Quintell's first year as head coach, and this year Quintell is back with last year's interim tag removed.

Quintell leads a team that returns seven starters led by last year's leading scorer Porter Gigstead (So.-Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) and seniors including Jordan Davis-Troller (Cottage Grove, Wis.) and Brahm Dell Adema (Plano, Texas), while goalkeeper Matt English (Sr.-Cheyenne, Wyo.) is back after playing in 12 games last year and starting five with 31 saves and a 2.56 goals against average.