Lakeland College

Muskies Prevail at Midwest 10 Before Falling to Oshkosh in Championship Match

Athletics - posted on 3/8/2008

While the Lakeland College men's volleyball team emerged victorious from four out of its five matches at Saturday's Midwest 10 Tournament held at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., to advance to the tournament finals, the Muskies were unable to get past a formidable UW-Oshkosh squad, falling to the Titans for the fourth time this season in the championship match, 2-0 (25-27, 21-25).

Despite the tough loss, the Muskies (29-5) did well on the road to reaching the championship match, with convincing victories in their other matches. The squad faced UW-Milwaukee twice during the tournament with a pair of 2-0 wins in both cases, 25-16, 25-17 in the first match of the day and 25-13, 25-16 in the tournament semifinal match.

The Muskies also defeated Ball State fairly easily in the first game of the match, 25-13, but the second game was forced into extra points before Lakeland finally took the game, 27-25, to win the match 2-0.

The Muskies enjoyed a fairly diverse offensive attack throughout the tournament, led by senior middle hitter Jared Rohland who tallied a team tournament-high 10 kills in the match loss to UW-Oshkosh. He also recorded six kills in the first match with UW-Milwaukee and had five kills and five blocks against Ball State. Senior outside hitter Matt Martin was also a key element to the Muskies' success, as he registered six kills, four digs and three blocks to aid Rohland against Ball State, then put down eight kills against UW-Milwaukee in the semifinals.

Senior middle hitter Tim Frillman and junior outside hitter Joe Julkowski also helped the offensive efforts, as Frillman led the offense with eight kills against Iowa State while Julkowski had six kills in the first match with UW-Milwaukee. Junior setter Matt Clemens also contributed throughout the tournament, highlighted by an effort of 23 assists and five digs in the semifinals.

Lakeland will get another shot at UW-Oshkosh when they return to Wisconsin Volleyball Conference action this week, as they will face the Titans at home on Thursday, March 13. First the Muskies will travel to UW-Whitewater on Wednesday. Match time is set for 8 p.m. in Whitewater, Wis.

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