AURORA, Ill. – The Lakeland University men's volleyball team once again had Aurora University on the ropes but couldn't close out and was dealt a five-set loss Saturday afternoon in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play.

The Spartans came back from a 2-1 deficit in the match for a 25-20, 21-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12 win. Aurora defeated Lakeland in five sets for the second time this season, both times coming back from 2-1 down to win the final two sets.

The loss was an especially painful one for the Muskies, whose hopes of hosting a quarterfinal match in the upcoming NACC Tournament took a hit. Lakeland is now tied with Aurora and Marian University for fourth place in the conference with a 4-7 record, and Aurora now has the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Muskies, who likely need to defeat nationally ranked Dominican University in their conference finale next Saturday to have hope of taking the No. 4 seed.

Lakeland (10-17 overall) hit well for the first three sets but fell off over the final two. The Muskies hit .309 over the first three sets to take the lead in the match, but then hit just .037 over the last two sets while the Spartans heated up.

Lakeland built the 2-1 lead in the match but then played from behind the entire fourth set and almost the whole fifth set. The Muskies led 1-0 in the fifth but then saw Aurora run off six straight points, and though Lakeland closed back within one point on two occasions it could never get over the hump.

Aurora hit .265 for the match with 65 kills and 26 errors, while Lakeland finished at a .200 hitting percentage with 49 kills and 22 errors.

Dakota Hunter (Jr.-Waukesha, Wis.) led Lakeland with 16 kills and also added 13 digs. Cameron Ekum (Fr.-Wales, Wis.) also added 13 kills, 23 assists and 10 digs.

J.T. Levitt (Jr.-Schaumburg, Ill.) led the team with 14 digs. Addison Mertler (Jr.-Boca Raton, Fla.) also finished with 22 assists, while Desmond Williams (Jr.-Riverside, Calif.) added seven kills plus four blocks.

Tim Breiter led Aurora with 19 kills, one of four players with at least 11 kills. Justin Yost also added 58 assists plus 20 digs.

Lakeland now preps for its regular season finale next Saturday when it hosts Dominican at 2 p.m. It will be Senior Day for Trevor Perry (Mililani, Hawaii), the lone senior on this year's Muskies team.