Lakeland College

Lakeland women's volleyball opens season with perfect mark at Illinois College Invite

Athletics - posted on 9/2/2012

JACKSONVILLE, ILL. - The Lakeland College women's volleyball team got its 2012 season off to a great start this weekend by sweeping four games at the Illinois College Volleyball Invitational.

The Muskies needed a set to get warmed up before defeating Culver-Stockton (Mo.) College in four sets (12-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-17) in their opener Saturday afternoon. Lakeland then cruised through a three-set win over MacMurray (Ill.) College (25-14, 25-19, 25-17) to finish 2-0 on the opening day.

The Muskies recorded a four-set win over the host school this morning, defeating Illinois College 25-16, 25-17, 23-25, 25-23. Lakeland then finished with a four-set win over Northern Athletics Conference rival Aurora (Ill.) University, defeating the Spartans 25-18, 25-16, 22-25, 25-23.

Junior Anna Faust (Cross Plains, Wis.) and freshman Caleigh Galvan (New Lenox, Ill.) both were named to the all-tournament team. Faust recorded 32 kills and 51 digs over four games, while Galvan posted 21 kills and a team-high 55 digs in the tourney. Anna Lewer of Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology was named tournament MVP.

Taylor Daus (Sr.-Green Bay, Wis.) led the Muskies with 39 kills and added 51 digs, while Amanda Dillman (Jr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) hammered 37 kills and led the team with 17 blocks. Katie Freitag (Jr.-Kiel, Wis.) added 36 kills and Brittany Reindl (Jr.-Kenosha, Wis.) paced the team with 121 assists.

Lakeland is 4-0 to start the season for the first time since 2006, when the Muskies opened with a 6-0 mark. The start also is considerably better than the past two seasons when Lakeland opened with seven straight losses to begin the season both years.

The matches also were the first for the Muskies under new Head Coach Kim Bukowski, who is in her first year leading the team after serving as an assistant at her alma mater NCAA Division I Valparaiso University last year.

Lakeland will participate in tournament play again next weekend when it travels to the Dominican (Ill.) University Star Classic. The Muskies will open Friday at 2:30 p.m. against Greenville (Ill.) College.