Freshman Gillian Jones knocked down a career-high 17 kills to pace the Dominican University women's volleyball team in a three-set (26-24, 25-23, 25-20) win over the Lakeland College Muskies in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament quarterfinal round on Tuesday night at the Igini Sports Forum.  With the win, the Stars (17-12) advance to the conference semifinals where they will meet the top-seed Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons on Thursday evening in Mequon, Wisconsin.
 
Jones hit .371 in the winning effort, including knocking down ten kills in the second set on 17 attacks.  The rookie added an ace and a block assist for a total of 18.5 points on the night.  Classmate Anastasia Labadessa ran the offense to a .279 hitting percentage, collecting 46 assists while knocking down four kills of her own.
 
"I'm very proud of this young group," commented Dominican University first-year head coach Brittany Sisk. "They were able to overcome those playoff nerves in the first set and finish strong in the third set."
 
After the Muskies jumped out to a 7-3 lead early in the first set, Dominican roared back with five-point spurt, capped by a Jones kill, to pull ahead 8-7.  The sides then traded sideouts until a four-point run by the Muskies opened a 21-18 lead for the visitors.  After a Stars' timeout, Dominican strung together four points on kills by Stephanie Cole and Alex Kisten, coupled with a pair of Lakeland errors to pull back ahead, 23-21.  Back-to-back points for the Muskies evened the set at 23-23 before Dominican set up the first set point on a kill by Cole.  Lakeland staved off set point when Megan Goeser knocked down a kill before Elin Ream put the hosts back ahead with her third kill of the opening set before Ream and Kendyl Todd finished off the set for Dominican with a block.
 
In the second set, it was Lakeland that had to withstand an early run by the Stars who opened a 5-2 lead.  After the Muskies regrouped, Lakeland scored seven of the next ten points, pulling ahead 9-8 on a Dominican attack error.  However, the one point advantage was the final lead for the visitors in the second set as Dominican scored seven of the next nine, including a pair of kills by Kisten, to open a 15-12 lead.  The Stars' lead ballooned to 20-15 on another kill by Jones before Lakeland stormed back, evening the score at 23-23 before a Lakeland service error stopped the run and set up set point for Dominican.  Todd then capped the set with her fourth kill of the night, handing Dominican a two-set advantage.
 
After hitting an even .200 through the first two sets, the Dominican offense kicked into high-gear in the clinching third set, knocking down 21 kills to just two errors on 41 attacks.  The efficient attack helped the Stars maintain a healthy lead with just one lead change and three ties in the final set.  Todd carried the hot hand in the third, knocking down seven of her 11 kills in the set on just 11 attempts.  Jones added four kills as the Stars closed out the victory.
 
Jones and Todd paced the offense with 17 and 11 kills respectively while Ream and Kisten added eight kills apiece.  Defensively, Jones and Labadessa rounded out double-double efforts with 17 and 11 digs respectively while Megan Parker added 17 digs of her own.
 
The Muskies were paced by Brittini Scoles' ten kills while Allison Errthum collected a match-high 20 digs.
 
"Lakeland definitely did a good job preparing for us," continued Sisk, "but as we have talked about all year, we have depth on this team that allowed some other individuals the opportunity to step up."
 
The Stars now face the tall task of knocking off the NACC regular season champions on the road.  Concordia Wisconsin navigated through the conference regular season undefeated and stand at 26-2 on the season.
 
"The beauty of the playoffs is that every team is 1-0 in the second round," Sisk said. "We are ready to get back in the gym tomorrow to prepare for CUW on Thursday."