Volleyball drops NAC opener at Lakeland

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Hannah Griffiths and Carley Valentine connected all night on the offensive side of the net, but it wasn't enough as Lakeland College downed Concordia University Wisconsin 3-1 (23-25, 19-25, 25-16, 25-16) in the Northern Athletics Conference opener for both teams.

Griffiths (sophomore, Antigo, Wis.) smashed a match-high 13 kills, while Valentine (sophomore, De Pere, Wis.) assisted on a team-best 27 assists. In all, the match featured 20 scoring ties and eight lead changes, however, the Muskies put together timely scoring runs to pull out the victory.

Valentine also finished with 15 digs and seven kills. Sophomore Erin Howard (Labadie, Mo.) led the Falcons defensively with 21 digs and sophomore Britta Duchow (Potter, Wis.) controlled the net with seven block assists. CUW rejected 10 block attempts compared to LC's six blocks.

Caleigh Galvan paced the Muskies with 11 kills and a match-high 25 digs. Brittany Reindle assisted on a match-best 34 kills, and Taylor Daus ended the match with 13 digs and nine kills.

The Falcons (3-5, 0-1 NAC) pushed the Muskies (7-2, 1-0 NAC) to the edge in the opening frame, but three points at the end gave LC a 1-0 lead. CUW fell behind by as many as five points before climbing back to take a 23-22 lead late. A pair of attacking errors and a kill by Daus put the Falcons in an early hole.

Following an 11-11 tie, LC capitalized on seven CUW attacking errors to end the second frame with a 14-8 scoring run to own a 2-0 advantage in the league matchup.

The Falcons answered in the third frame against their rivals by jumping out to a commanding 15-8 lead midway through the third set. CUW smashed 12 kills in the frame and took advantage of 11 LC errors to win 25-16.

The final frame was a back-and-forth affair with seven scoring ties. Both teams were knotted at 13-13 prior to the Muskies rattling off a 12-3 scoring run behind four kills from Katie Freitag to claim a 25-16 set victory to win the match.

CUW returns to Mequon for its home opener on Thursday at 7 p.m. against Marian University. The Falcons have just two home matches in the month of September.