MILWAUKEE - St. Norbert College closed out the regular season with a 3-1 loss to No. 14-ranked Milwaukee School of Engineering in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match at Kern Center.
The Green Knights (12-14, 5-7 NACC) now need help this coming weekend to qualify for the eight-team NACC Tournament next week. St. Norbert can qualify if Lakeland University tops Concordia University Wisconsin on Saturday in Mequon.
St. Norbert fell behind 7-1 to open Set 1 and got back to within 19-14 and 21-17 but could not close the gap any tighter to fall behind 1-0. The Green Knights and Raiders were tied 14-14 in the second set before the host went on a 5-1 run to gain breathing room. St. Norbert cut the deficit to two points twice but did not draw closer to trail 2-0. The third set featured nine ties, the last coming at 23-23 when St. Norbert scored the last two points on a bad set and hitting error by MSOE to get back to a 2-1 deficit. The Green Knights trailed 16-15 in Set 4 before the Raiders went on a 6-0 run to salt the match away.
The Green Knights hit .089 for the match, with 37 kills against 26 errors in 124 attempts.
Kade Nelson had a team-high 11 kills, while
Jacob Van Ooyen added nine and
Barry Applewhite eight.
Michael Whitney had 31 assists, while
Cam Doty had two service aces.
Ryan Conway (pictured, foreground) finished with 20 digs, his fifth career match wit at least 20 digs.
Zach Hanse added nine digs. Applewhite finished with five blocks, while Whitney chipped in two.
MSOE hit .261, with 53 kills against 18 errors in 134 attempts. Callan Harris had a team-high 16 kills.
