From the Press Box: Lakeland at Concordia Volleyball

Mequon, Wisconsin -

Just one glance at the Northern Athletics Conference volleyball standings would tell you the importance of Tuesday night's Concordia-Lakeland match-up. With the Lakeland College Muskies currently in first place, five other schools are all within one and a half games of the top spot. Concordia is currently one of those schools, having won two straight matches and seven of their last eight.

The Muskies will enter the John Buuck Fieldhouse riding an unheard of 34 match winning streak in regular season conference play. Having won back-to-back conference titles, Lakeland hasn't lost in NAC play since falling at Concordia back on October 7th, 2006. To put that in perspective, only five total players between the two schools who played in that October 7th match, are still currently playing today for their respective programs.

One of those athletes back is Lakeland's Brittanie Paulus, who earlier this season broke the school's record for career digs. The senior was named the NAC Player of the Year in 2007, and earned First Team All-NAC, All-Midwest Region and Honorable Mention All-American status in 2008. She'll match-up against the reigning NAC Player of the Year Katie Roessler.

Roessler is coming off a strong showing on Saturday against Aurora. Besides her 21 kills, the senior registered a number of blocks and a couple of service aces. Stephanie Boehm continues to serve as a great complimentary player to Roessler, and finished with 12 kills of her own versus the Spartans.

Simply put, Tuesday will go a long way in deciding whether or not Lakeland will go on to win their third straight conference title, or if Concordia can keep their name in the running for their first league title since 1987. They serve-up set one at 7pm.

If you can't attend the match in person, you can view the live webstreaming by visiting: http://www.cuw.edu/videoserver/athletics.cfm