Lakeland College

Muskies slump after solid start, get swept by Dominican

Athletics - posted on 10/5/2012

SHEBOYGAN - Dominican (Ill.) University outlasted Lakeland College through a tough first set, then dominated the Muskies in the final two sets for a three-set sweep Friday night in a Northern Athletics Conference match.

Lakeland (13-8 overall, 3-4 NAC) hit a negative percentage for the match, with 19 kills to 27 errors in 96 attack attempts for a -.083 hitting percentage. The bulk of those errors took place in the second and third sets, when the Muskies hit -.238 with 21 errors to just six kills, and the result was Dominican easily moving to 17-3 overall and 6-1 in the NAC.

The turn of events in the second and third sets was unforeseen after a very competitive first set. The Stars led almost the whole way but Lakeland never lost contact and closed in late. Kills by Amanda Dillman (Jr.-Sheboygan, Wis.), Anna Faust (Jr.-Cross Plains, Wis.) and Katie Freitag (Jr.-Kiel, Wis.) got the Muskies within two points on three occasions, and a service ace by Melissa Christiansen (Jr.-Valders, Wis.) made the score 24-23. Dominican called timeout, and the Stars capitalized on the next point with a kill by Jacy Lawrence to win the set.

Lakeland started off the second set well, leading 7-6 before going into a funk it would not pull out of the rest of the match. The Stars' Olivia Szuszkiewicz served out 10 straight points with the help of six attack errors by the Muskies for a 17-7 lead.

Dominican went on to easily win the second set, and a similar script followed in the third set. This time the Muskies got off to a slow start and fell out of contention when Lawrence was on serve and held serve for 11 straight points.

Taylor Daus (Sr.-Bay Port, Wis.) had five kills on the Lakeland attack, while Brittany Reindl (Jr.-Kenosha, Wis.) had 17 assists and Faust and Christiansen led the team with eight digs each.

Caitlen Foote led Dominican with eight kills. The Stars defeated the Muskies for the second time this season, after also winning at home back on Sept. 8 as part of its own Star Classic invite.

Lakeland is home again Saturday when it faces Concordia University Chicago at 2 p.m. at Woltzen Gymnasium.