The Muskies and Stars first met in 2014, the first year for both schools fielding varsity programs. Lakeland won the first three meetings but the Stars have won 12 straight and 15 of the last 16, including most recently a three-set sweep at home last year in River Forest, Ill., by a 25-19, 25-17, 25-13 score. Dominican also won the last time the teams played at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium, taking a 25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 25-15 victory on the Muskies' Senior Day April 6, 2024. Lakeland's last win over the Stars was more than eight years ago, a 25-11, 26-24, 25-21 sweep at home over a 14th-ranked Dominican team on April 1, 2016.

Lakeland last time out: Lost to North Park 3-1 Tuesday
The Muskies started strong, leading most of the first set and winning the second set convincingly, but eventually fell to the Vikings 29-27, 15-25, 25-22, 25-20 at home in a non-conference match. Lakeland led for most of the first set and then came back from two points down but was unable to capitalize on four set points. The Muskies evened the match with a good second set but North Park carried play most of the final two sets. Sage Xiong led Lakeland with 12 kills and Jakob Donohue added 11 kills, Chase Anderson totaled 36 assist, Colin Putchinski served five aces and Luke Schultz posted 15 digs. The loss was Lakeland's third straight after opening the season winning three of its first five matches, and the Muskies also dropped to 2-3 at the Woltzen Gymnasium this season.

Dominican last time out: Defeated Adrian (Mich.) 3-0 Saturday
The Stars rolled to an easy sweep of the Bulldogs at home on Saturday with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-10 win. Dominican hit a smoking .484 for the match with 38 kills and just seven errors in 64 attacks, and defensively posted seven blocks over the three sets. Thomas Hirsch paced the Stars with 12 kills in 14 attacks with a .786 hitting percentage and also added seven block assists. Kendall Esparza also finished with seven kills and four service aces.

About the Stars: Dominican has perennially been one of the top teams in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and are receiving votes in the AVCA/NCAA Division III Top 20 Coaches Poll this week. The Stars have defeated North Park, Augustana (Ill.) and Adrian all in three sets this year, and Dominican last year finished 14-11 overall and 9-3 in the NACC to place fourth in the conference. The Stars won the NACC regular season and tournament titles as recently as 2024, appearing in the NCAA Division III Tournament that season.