GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – St. Norbert College finished its second day at the Calvin University Invitational by splitting a pair of matches at Hoogenboom Gymnasium.
 
St. Norbert (5-7) opened with a 3-1 loss to North Park University 21-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-19 before outlasting Adrian College 3-2 by scores of 19-25, 25-18, 25-19, 26-28, 16-14 to finish 2-1 on the weekend.
 
Against North Park, the Green Knights never trailed in Set 1 but needed to score four consecutive points to break free from a 21-21 tie to take a 1-0 lead. Long service runs by the Vikings in Set 2 knotted the match at 1-1. St. Norbert then came back from a deficit to take a 22-20 lead in Set 3 before a 5-1 run by North Park put the Green Knights in arrears 2-1. The Green Knights trailed 19-18 in Set 4 and another late run by the Vikings, this time a 6-1 finishing kick, locked up the match.
 
St. Norbert hit .102 for the match, with 34 kills against 23 errors in 108 attempts. Kaden Kornaus had nine kills, while Bennett Kornaus added eight and Barry Applewhite seven. Michael Whitney had 23 saves, while Kade Nelson had three service aces.
 
Bennett Kornaus had six digs, while Kaden Kornaus and Zach Hanse had five each. Applewhite and Nelson had four blocks each, with Wade La Blanc adding three.
 
Against Adrian, the Green Knights dropped the first set before coming back in Set 2 to see a 14-13 lead balloon into a 23-15 advantage following a 9-2 run en route to a 1-1 tie. The third set saw St. Norbert in control, with a 12-11 lead rupturing into a 19-12 edge following a 7-1 spurt on its way to a 2-1 match lead.
 
The fourth set saw a whopping 18 ties and 10 lead changes in tense action. The Green Knights had three match points at the end of Set 4 but the Bulldogs answered with an equalizer each time, then scored three straight points to force a fifth set. St. Norbert never trailed in the fifth-set tiebreaker, although it was tied seven times. The Green Knights couldn't fully escape Adrian until the end, with a Bulldogs' service and attacking error the deciding factor after a 14-14 deadlock.
 
The Green Knights hit .313, with 61 kills against 19 errors in 134 attempts – with the 61 terminations tied for second-most in a match in program history. Cam Doty (pictured) posted a career-high 17 kills, while Bennett Kornaus added 15 kills and Kaden Kornaus 13 kills. Whitney had 43 assists. Doty and Grant Bettag had two service aces apiece.
 
Ryan Conway had 13 digs, while Bennett Kornaus added 10. Doty and Applewhite had two blocks apiece.