2008 Woodie Awards
Men's volleyball ends impressive season with a boom
Leeann Hupfer
Issue date: 4/24/03 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
 Fans turned out in the hundreds to watch the championship match of this year’s 2003 |
"Goals were made in order to put themselves in a position to win either, if not both, the conference tournament or the national championship," said head coach Chad Schreiber.
The men came up short in both tournaments but only to one team, MATC. The Wisconsin Volleyball Conference is undoubtedly the toughest conference in the nation, having both the No. 1 and No. 2 teams playing other top teams such as UW-Oshkosh and Marquette University. The Muskies flew right through the conference tournament the first day beating UW-Platteville, Carthage, UW-Whitewater, and Marquette. The second day proved to be a different story when the team narrowly beat UW-Oshkosh in the semifinals in a heart pounding three game match 22-25, 25-23, 17-15 and then meeting their nemesis, MATC, in the finals. For the third time this season, the men were matched up against them and could not pull through in a two game match 22-25, 18-25.
The conference recognized several Muskies with individual awards. Chris Gornik and Pat Klinkert both received all conference honors along with honorable mentions Dave Koch and Duncan Mathieson. Libero of the year was given to Rocky Koenig and Adam Plach was named to the all freshman team. Freshman Brett Blomdahl was named to the JV all conference team while Sophomore Mark Johnston earned JV MVP.
The conference tournament didn't turn out in Lakeland's favor, but the team set their sights high for the national tournament the next week.
The confidence that the Muskies held all season long shone brightly in the first two days of pool play, going undefeated into the championship bracket. Their first opponent, Peru State of Kentucky, seemed to be an easy match as they gained a 25-19 first game win. The second game was a complete turnaround with a disastrous 15-25 loss, but the Muskies quickly regained their composure and won the third game 15-11.
The second match of the day was against the very tall team of Dayton University. They may have looked rather intimidating, but Lakeland didn't even flinch and came out with a win of 22-25, 25-22, 15-11.
The semifinal match against Saint Louis University was without a doubt, the most exciting and intense game of the day. With plenty of spectators surrounding the entire court, chants, yells, and cheers boomed with every point. Lakeland upset SLU the first game with a come from behind win of 26-25. The second game seemed to be the team's rest time as they came out with a 20-25 loss, but came back with a big win of 15-13. Lakeland would once again face conference friends MATC for the national championship. WVC pride was present as other conference teams UW-Oshkosh and UW Platteville cheered both Lakeland and MATC on in the friendly championship game. Unfortunately for the Muskies', they fell once again in two games to the unstoppable MATC 21-25, 22-25.
Schreiber proclaimed, "We are proud to be members of the toughest conference in the nation. We wanted to be the champions but we did not want to beat MATC. I have confidence that if we would have played against a different team we would have won because it is a lot easier to compete against someone you have not relationship with."
The second place finish was followed by plenty of individual awards. Sophomores Mathieson and Gornik both received second team all tournament team recognition while junior Koch was presented with first team honors. Koenig was the all tournament libero.