2008 Woodie Awards
Volleyball looks to come out on top as they play UW-Oshkosh
Brad Wilk
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Sports
The Lakeland men's volleyball team will have plenty of motivation headed into Thursday night's match against UW-Oshkosh.
The Muskies, who are 29-5 and ranked fourth in the country, will be facing the nation's top-ranked team in UW-Oshkosh, a team that has handed them four of their five losses this season. Not only will this match be the last home game, it will be an emotional senior night.
However, Lakeland head coach Chad Schreiber is trying to keep Thursday night's match in perspective.
"I think most people think Thursday is a big match in the scheme of things," Schreiber said. "It doesn't get us any closer to certain things we want to do."
Lakeland is 9-1 in the Wisconsin Volleyball Conference, one game behind unbeaten Oshkosh. If Lakeland wins Thursday and both teams win their last four conference matches, they would share the WVC title, which Schreiber said would be nice after Lakeland won the league championship outright last year for the first time.
The Muskies lost to Oshkosh this past weekend, 27-25. They fell 25-21, in the championship match of the Midwest 10 Tournament in Milwaukee. Lakeland led 24-23 and 25-24 in the first game, but missed two serves, with chances to win.
"Aside from missing those serves, this was mostly a case of Oshkosh playing well instead of us playing poorly," Schreiber said. "I think that was definitely the best they've played in the four times we've lost to them. There are certain things we need to do to limit their success. That we knew going in, and just didn't do what we needed."
"It was a 'been there, done that' type of weekend. It was kind of frustrating that we put ourselves in a position to be in another championship match and we came up a little bit short. We were excited to play with our starting lineup as close to 100 percent as we've had this season, so we felt good about our chances."
The Muskies starting lineup showed how good it can be when they swept Marquette last Thursday, 30-28, 30-20, and 30-18. Junior setter Matt Clemens had 40 assists, 22 digs and three blocks. Graduate student, outside hitter Matt Martin had 14 kills and senior right side hitter Andrew Lietz had 10 kills.
The Muskies, who are 29-5 and ranked fourth in the country, will be facing the nation's top-ranked team in UW-Oshkosh, a team that has handed them four of their five losses this season. Not only will this match be the last home game, it will be an emotional senior night.
However, Lakeland head coach Chad Schreiber is trying to keep Thursday night's match in perspective.
"I think most people think Thursday is a big match in the scheme of things," Schreiber said. "It doesn't get us any closer to certain things we want to do."
Lakeland is 9-1 in the Wisconsin Volleyball Conference, one game behind unbeaten Oshkosh. If Lakeland wins Thursday and both teams win their last four conference matches, they would share the WVC title, which Schreiber said would be nice after Lakeland won the league championship outright last year for the first time.
The Muskies lost to Oshkosh this past weekend, 27-25. They fell 25-21, in the championship match of the Midwest 10 Tournament in Milwaukee. Lakeland led 24-23 and 25-24 in the first game, but missed two serves, with chances to win.
"Aside from missing those serves, this was mostly a case of Oshkosh playing well instead of us playing poorly," Schreiber said. "I think that was definitely the best they've played in the four times we've lost to them. There are certain things we need to do to limit their success. That we knew going in, and just didn't do what we needed."
"It was a 'been there, done that' type of weekend. It was kind of frustrating that we put ourselves in a position to be in another championship match and we came up a little bit short. We were excited to play with our starting lineup as close to 100 percent as we've had this season, so we felt good about our chances."
The Muskies starting lineup showed how good it can be when they swept Marquette last Thursday, 30-28, 30-20, and 30-18. Junior setter Matt Clemens had 40 assists, 22 digs and three blocks. Graduate student, outside hitter Matt Martin had 14 kills and senior right side hitter Andrew Lietz had 10 kills.
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