Lakeland College

Muskies Fall to Crusaders in NAC Tournament Opener

Athletics - posted on 10/31/2006

The No. 3 seeded Lakeland women's volleyball team (18-18) fell to No. 6 Maranatha Baptist, 3-1 (25-30, 28-30, 30-28, 24-30) in the opening round of the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament on Tuesday, Oct. 31, at Lakeland College.

Although Lakeland was able to take game three after dropping the first two, the Crusaders used an aggressive defensive effort to frustrate the Muskies and refused to let the home squad build more than a five-point lead for the entire match.

This deficit proved to be too much to overcome, as game four went in favor of the Maranatha to end the match.

"We didn't have enough people that cared," said head coach Chad Schreiber. "Their body language, their effort, all season has been strained. There were very few losses we had that we competed in. You can handle losses if you compete in them, but we might have lost to the 12th place team in conference with tonight's effort."

Junior middle hitter Shelly Bruni led the team on offense with 12 kills, while also chipping in a team-high three blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Heidi Kramer and freshman outside hitter and defensive specialist Brittanie Paulus each recorded 11 kills, while Paulus also tallied a team-best 20 digs.

Junior outside hitter Ashley Domask added 18 digs and nine kills, while sophomore setter Jessica Sparling totaled 47 assists.

The loss marks the first time since 2001 that Lakeland has not gone on to win a conference championship, as they took every title in the former Lake Michigan Conference from 2002-2005.

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