About Lakeland: The Muskies are making their 2026-27 season debut and play the first of three straight games at home to start the campaign. Lakeland finished 11-15 overall last year and posted an 8-9 record in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference to finish eighth and qualify for the NACC Tournament. The Muskies will field a quite different team this year, though, with three starters departed including the team's top three scorers. The squad's top three rebounders also have departed, but the returnees will mix with six freshmen on this year's team. Sadie Grabow is the leading returning scorer and rebounder, averaging 6.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while starting 18 times last year, and six others return who played in at least 23 games last year.

UW-Stevens Point last time out: Won at St. Norbert 68-55 Saturday
The Pointers opened their season this past weekend and capped it with the championship in the St. Norbert Nicolet National Bank Tip-Off Tournament, including a win over the host Green Knights Sunday afternoon. Karissa Smith scored 23 points, including 20 points in the second half as UWSP came back from a halftime deficit, outscoring SNC 43-26 over the final 20 minutes, including 18-7 in the final quarter. Jessilyn Ernst also scored 19 points and added eight rebounds and Lily Truchon put together a single-double with three points and 10 rebounds.

About the Pointers: UW-Stevens Point also opened its season in the St. Norbert tourney with a 73-43 rout of St. Scholastica (Minn.) on Saturday. The Pointers finished 15-11 overall last year including 4-10 in the always-tough Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. UWSP opened going 11-0 in non-conference games but faltered in conference play, including six losses by six points or less. Three starters returned from that team including Smith, Ernst and Laney Panich. Matt Hockett is in his fourth year as head coach for the Pointers, and two years ago he led UWSP to its first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance since 2016.

Glass half full: Lakeland lost its three leading scorers and rebounders from last year and the three players who started the most games last season. On the other hand, the Muskies also bring back seven players who started a game last year, as well as eight players who averaged at least eight minutes per game. Five of the Muskies' returnees scored in double figures in at least one game last year (Grabow, Meghan MacPhee, Sydney Nimsakont, Madeline Sasis and Jenna Shea), and Lakeland also returns Peyton Madl, who scored in double figures in four games as a freshman in 2024-25 before sitting out last year due to injury.