Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Sports

Freshman Mitch Wiskirchen, sophomore Beau Bradshaw, and senior Joe Julkowski are ready to receive a serve during a recent home match.

The Lakeland men's volleyball team is off to a solid start this season despite dealing with some injuries.

The Muskies, ranked twelth in the nation, are 9-2 headed into one of the biggest tournaments of the season this weekend, the Hoosier-Illini Classic in Bloomington, Ind. Lakeland is 5-0 in the Wisconsin Volleyball Conference.

"We've had flashes of brilliance with how well we've played and give us a lot of hope for where we want to get at the end of the year," said Lakeland coach Chad Schreiber. "We can't put our finger on why we continue to give away so many points and make matches more difficult than they need to be."

Schreiber said the team has been working a lot on serving, and that area and serve receiveing are both improving.

He said the Muskies have to stop making unforced errors offensively and improve their blocking. He has been surprised at both how good and how bad the team has been in matches so far this year.

"When we've been at our best, I can't believe we've been that good," Schreiber said. "And when we've been bad, I can't believe we've been that bad. I thought we'd have highs and lows, but not as high as they've been and not as low as they've been."

The Muskies have dealt with a number of injuries, the biggest being starting senior middle hitter Jared Rohland, who has been out of the lineup.

Lakeland has seen several players step up their game, Schreiber said, including sophomore middle Beau Bradshaw and junior outside hitter Perry Ringfelt. Ringfelt had his first career start in Thursday's win over rival Marquette, and Schreiber said it was also the best match of his career.

Schreiber hopes the Muskies will be close to 100 percent healthy for this weekend, with the possible exception of Rohland. Lakeland could play as many as ten matches in the two-day tournament.

"We have been giving points away to teams that are not nationally ranked and coming out with close wins," Schreiber said. "I hope we don't have to learn a lesson this weekend that giving away points to nationally ranked teams means we can't beat them.

"I'm hoping that the good competition raises our focus and makes us a little sharper, so that we understand we can't give away points the way we have at times."

Lakeland's next home match is March 12 at 7:30 p.m. against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

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