Dominican University made a final surge in the fifth set, making the deciding run to defeat the Lakeland University women's volleyball team in a hotly contested five-set loss Friday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Stars fought back after losing the first set, continued to chip away and eventually pulled out an 18-25, 26-24, 27-29, 25-23, 15-9 victory in a duel that lasted well over two hours. Both teams featured good defense and engaged in a number of long rallies, but Dominican won the battle for third place in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and edged ahead of the Muskies in the standings and in the battle for position in the NACC Tournament.

Lakeland (18-8 overall, 7-3 NACC) found out that, like Dominican, it clinched its spot in the six-team conference tournament Friday night, but it also missed an opportunity for the inside track on the third seed in the tourney. The Muskies held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the match but could never close the door on the Stars.

Lakeland won the first set comfortably and appeared to have each of the next three sets under control at some point, only for the Stars (17-7 overall, 8-2 NACC) to hang around.

The Muskies cruised in the first set, building a 12-6 lead early and were never seriously threatened the rest of the set. Lakeland also looked in good shape in the second set, getting halfway to 25 first with a 13-11 lead, and the Muskies even led at 18-17 before Dominican heated up, took a 24-20 lead and then held on after the Muskies fought off four set points.

Any questions about the Stars' resilience were answered in the third set, when the guests rallied from a 21-11 deficit with eight straight points and fought off five set points before Lakeland finally closed it out. The Muskies then raced to an 8-2 lead early in the fourth set, but Dominican came back again, eventually gaining the advantage with a 4-1 mini-run late and claiming the set again by two points.

The Stars had 44 attack errors in the match, hitting just .078 as a team, but the visitors saved their most efficient hitting for the end, posting eight kills and just four errors in the fifth set. Dominican scored the first three points before the Muskies rallied with five straight, but the Stars came right back with a 7-1 run and soon after scored five of the final six points to win it.

Lakeland outhit Dominican, posting a .126 attack percentage with 51 kills and 26 errors, but the Muskies never topped their first set hitting performance when they had 13 kills to seven errors (.188).

Lakeland received a career-high 29 digs from Shelby Welsh (Sr.-Ogallala, Neb.), who also led the team with 13 kills. Emma Bruder (Sr.-Frankfort, Ill.) also posted 23 digs and Neenah Primas (So.-Oostburg, Wis.) added 17 digs, part of five Muskies to post at least 13 digs.

Primas also added 39 assists, Eliana Arbetman (Sr.-Oak Park, Ill.) finished with nine kills and Megan Goeser (So.-Plymouth, Wis.) led with six blocks (one solo, five assisted). Emilie Schartner (Sr.-Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) also added eight kills plus four blocks, part of the team's 12 blocks total.

Gillian Jones came off the bench to post a match-high 15 kills and also added 23 digs for Dominican. Megan Parker totaled 26 digs and Anastasia Labadessa totaled 41 assists plus 16 digs.

Lakeland will get right back on the court Saturday when it hosts Concordia University Chicago and UW-Stout for a triangular. The Muskies will face their NACC foe Cougars at noon, Concordia and UW-Stout will play at 2 p.m., and Lakeland will then face Stout at 4 p.m.