PLYMOUTH, Wis. -- The Alverno College women's volleyball team suffered through a tough loss in its 2009 Northern Athletics Conference debut, falling to Lakeland College, 3-0, on Wednesday night.

The Inferno (0-7, 0-1 NAC) seemed to have some difficulties getting into their stride on offense, registering just 13 kills in the match and dropping the first set, 25-8.

"We definitely struggled in the first set of tonight's match," said Alverno head coach Crystal McClure. "We weren't able to find the intensity to perform well on the court. We need to learn to enter a match with confidence. Once we established an understanding for what we were up against and the environment, we were capable of playing the game we love."

The squad would recover somewhat in the next two sets, coming out of the gates hard in the second set to jump out to a 9-1 lead. However, the Muskies would recover the lead using effective serving to take the set, 25-18, as well as posting the same score in the third set to take the match.

Freshman middle blocker Rachel Diedrich (Two Rivers, Wis.) led the Inferno at the net with six kills, while sophomore outside hitter Ashley Graham (Cudahy, Wis.) captained the back row with eight digs.

Alverno will continue NAC play on Thursday, Sept. 17, when the Inferno travel to face Dominican University.

"Dominican will be tough on Thursday," McClure said. "They had a young team last year and we'll simply have to prepare for every aspect of the game, but it all starts with confidence. We will be learning to prepare ourselves mentally tomorrow, as we have five more matches this week and can't start each one trying to win with a comeback."

Match start time is set for 7 p.m. in River Forest, Ill.