VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – St. Norbert College dropped a pair of matches to wrap up the Virginia Wesleyan University Tournament at TowneBank Arena.
 
The Green Knights opened with a tough 3-2 loss to Virginia Wesleyan, falling 25-23, 23-25, 24-26, 25-21, 15-12. St. Norbert then lost to Barton College, an NCAA Division II school, 3-2 by scores of 25-18, 29-27, 23-25, 23-25, 15-6.
 
Against Virginia Wesleyan, the match featured 38 ties and 16 lead changes. In the first set, St. Norbert held late leads of 21-19 and 22-21 before the Marlins rallied to take a 1-0 lead. The Green Knights led for most of the second set before a 24-21 lead moved to 24-23, but Kaden Kornaus' kill knotted things at 1-1. The third set was also hotly contested, with Virginia Wesleyan holding a 24-22 lead, but a pair of Kornaus kills forced a deuce set. A Michael Whitney kill and a Marlins' hitting error put St. Norbert ahead 2-1.
 
Set 4 saw Virginia Wesleyan lead 21-20 before going on a 4-1 run to level the match at 2-2. St. Norbert got off to a good start in the decisive fifth set, taking a 4-1 lead. The Marlins fought back to take a 7-6 lead and pushed ahead 10-7, but the Green Knights knotted things at 11-11. Virginia Wesleyan closed out the win with a 4-1 finishing kick.
 
St. Norbert hit .146 for the match, with 51 kills and 28 errors in 158 attempts. Barry Applewhite had 10 kills, while Owen Knezevich had nine and Whitney eight. Whitney added 37 assists and four service aces.
 
Bennett Kornaus and Zach Hanse had 10 digs each. The Green Knights set a school single-match record with 16 blocks, with Kade Nelson (pictured) posting a St. Norbert all-time best 11. Whitney added five blocks.
 
Against Barton, the match had 33 ties and 11 lead changes. The Green Knights led 16-15 in Set 1 before the Bulldogs pulled away with a 10-2 run. The second set was a tough loss for St. Norbert, which had two set points in a deuce situation, the last at 26-25, before Barton's 4-1 run. St. Norbert opened up a 15-7 lead in Set 3 and held off Barton down the stretch, which closed it to 23-21, before a Bennett Kornaus kill brought it to 2-1.
 
The fourth set had 15 ties and six lead changes alone, the latter with St. Norbert drawing even at 2-2 after a 23-23 tie on kills by Barry Applewhite and Kaden Kornaus. The tiebreaker in Set 5 saw Barton grab a 4-0 lead with the Green Knights only getting as close as 6-3 and 7-4.
 
St. Norbert hit .113, with 57 kills and 38 errors in 168 attempts. Kaden Kornaus had 15 kills, while Applewhite added 11. Jacob Van Ooyen chipped in with nine. Whitney had 28 assists, while Ethan Grassl added 19. Nelson had six service aces.
 
Bennett Kornaus finished with 13 digs, with Van Ooyen getting 11 and Kaden Kornaus 10. Nelson had five blocks and Van Ooyen two.