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Muskies tabbed third in NAC preseason poll
Athletics - posted on 11/7/2008
The Lakeland women's basketball team has been tabbed third in the North Division of the Northern Athletics Conference in the 2008-09 preseason coaches' poll.
The league announced the poll Friday at the annual NAC Basketball Media Day, hosted by Alverno College in Milwaukee.
The Muskies received 54 points from the conference's coaches. Concordia University Wisconsin was selected to finish atop the league, receiving 11 of the 13 first-place votes. Edgewood College was picked second in the poll, tallying the remaining pair of first-place votes.
Last season, Lakeland finished tied for fourth in the conference with a 12-6 league record to go along with a 15-11 overall mark. The Muskies won their last six NAC contests in the regular season before bowing out to Edgewood in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
Second-year head coach Teri Johnson called this season's squad a "completely different" team.
"We've fought through some injuries here in the preseason," Johnson said, "but our returners bring a lot of experience."
Junior forward KC Blahnik, a Gladstone, Mich., native, is the Muskies' top returner from a year ago. Blahnik garnered second-team all-NAC honors after averaging 11.1 points and a team-leading 7.6 rebounds per game, starting all 26 contests for Lakeland.
The Muskies return just one senior in guard Kasey Gussert, who was also on hand for NAC Media Day. A Kingsford, Mich., native, Gussert appeared in 26 games last season and will be counted on to provide veteran leadership for a team bringing in nine freshmen.
"Having nine freshmen can be both a positive and a negative," Johnson said. "You don't really know what to expect, but you know young players will work hard every day, so that can be a good thing."
Other top returners for the Muskies include sophomore guard Mary Dennewitz (Chicago, Ill.) and junior center Katie Kilton (Waukesha).
For the first time in the NAC's three years of existence, the conference will be divided into two divisions, the North Division and the South Division. This season, Lakeland will compete in the North, along with Concordia Wisconsin, Edgewood, Maranatha Baptist, Marian and Rockford. The Muskies will play each team in its division twice during the regular season.
Alverno, Aurora, Benedictine, Concordia Chicago, Dominican, MSOE and Wisconsin Lutheran make up the South. Lakeland will face each of these teams once.
The NAC Challenge game has also been added to this year's schedule. At the conclusion of the regular season conference schedule, the team in first place in the North will play the first-place team from the South, the second-place team from the North will compete against the South's second-place finisher, and on down the line. The seventh-place team from the South will play Mount Mary College.
The outcome of each game will determine seeding for the NAC Tournament. The winner of the eight-team tournament will receive an automatic berth into the Division III NCAA Tournament.
For the complete NAC Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll, see below. First place votes are in parenthesis.
North Division
1. Concordia University Wis. (11) 75
2. Edgewood College (2) 64
3. Lakeland College 54
4. Marian University 37
5. Rockford College 29
6. Maranatha Baptist 14
Place 1 2 3 4 5 6
Points 6 5 4 3 2 1
South Division
1. Wisconsin Lutheran (9) 87
2. Aurora University (3) 80
3. Benedictine University 56
4. Concordia University Chicago (1) 53
5. Dominican University 48
6. Alverno College 21
7. MSOE 19
Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Points 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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