With the weather (slightly) warmer than its last home date, the Lakeland University men's volleyball team plays host again Tuesday night when it welcomes North Park (Ill.) University for a 7 p.m. first serve at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.
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The Muskies and Vikings face off for the second straight and the fourth time overall. Lakeland won last year's matchup in Chicago, taking a 27-25, 26-24, 25-21 victory almost a year ago to the day on Jan. 28, 2025.
Eli Weinrich paced the Muskies with 10 kills. Lakeland is 2-0 all-time against North Park on the road, but 0-1 at home with a four-set loss at home four years ago at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium. The teams' other meeting came on Valentine's Day in 2020, another four-set match with the Muskies winning 25-18, 25-17, 23-25, 25-22.
Lakeland last time out: Lost to Calvin (Mich.) 3-1 Saturday
The Muskies faced the Knights in a quickly arranged neutral-site matchup on Saturday played at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, and Lakeland won the first set before Calvin came back for a 16-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-21 win. The Muskies won the opening set going away but then played from behind for most of the final three sets in losing their second straight match.
Jakob Donohue finished with 10 kills,
Sage Xiong added eight kills plus nine digs,
Chase Anderson posted 28 assists and Weinrich added team highs with 11 digs and two service aces. With his two aces, Weinrich moved into eighth on Lakeland's all-time list for career service aces with 48.
The match was played one day after Lakeland and Calvin were supposed to play as part of a triangular hosted by the Muskies that also was to include Maranatha Baptist, but was canceled due to the extreme cold warning in the area. Calvin also had a triangular match canceled on Saturday at Concordia, leaving the opening for the Muskies and Knights to reschedule their match lost on Friday and to play it on Concordia's home court.
North Park last time out: Lost to Adrian (Mich.) 3-0 Friday
The Vikings lost their second match in two days, falling to the Bulldogs 25-23, 25-18, 25-19 at home in Chicago. Sam Landers was a one-man wrecking crew for Adrian, finishing with 19 kills and a .548 attack percentage. North Park was led by Gerald Buhain Malana with 12 kills, but the Vikings hit just .053 as a team with 25 kills and 21 errors.
NPU dropped to 0-3 on the season, having also lost a five-set match to Lakeland's Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference rival Edgewood on the road the night before.North Park is in its eighth year as a varsity program and is a member of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. The Vikings finished 10-17 overall a year ago and 2-8 in the CCIW.
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