Lakeland University ran into a powerful and motivated opponent and saw its regular season end with a three-set loss to nationally ranked Dominican University Saturday afternoon in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference men's volleyball match.

The Stars rolled to a 25-11, 25-18, 25-20 victory to wrap up a share of the NACC regular season title, as well as the top seed in next week's NACC Tournament. The Muskies lost in their final home match of the season and dropped to 9-19 overall and 4-8 in conference play.

The loss means Lakeland finished alone in sixth place in the NACC standings and gives it the sixth seed in the conference tournament. The Muskies will open the tourney in the quarterfinals Tuesday, traveling to face No. 3 seed Milwaukee School of Engineering at 7 p.m.

Lakeland was celebrating Senior Day for Trevor Perry (Mililani, Hawaii), the team's lone senior, even wearing Hawaiian shirts for warmups in honor of their senior from the islands. The Muskies weren't able to make much headway, though, against the Stars, who entered the match ranked seventh in the latest AVCA/NCAA Division III Top 15 Coaches Poll.

Dominican (22-7 overall, 10-2 NACC) lost a chance to clinch the NACC crown outright the night before with a four-set loss to unranked Marian University, but the Stars were on their game Saturday. The visitors hit .397 for the match with 41 kills and just 12 errors, and also added nine service aces and eight blocks, playing from ahead almost the entire way.

Lakeland hit just .086 as a team with 23 kills and 17 errors in 70 attacks, and also posted just 19 digs as a team. Other than Cameron Ekum (Fr.-Wales, Wis.) with nine kills, no other Muskie had more than four kills, and Ekum and Dakota Hunter (Jr.-Waukesha, Wis.) paced the team with four digs each.

Jarrod Verhamme (Fr.-Long Beach, Calif.) and Desmond Williams (Jr.-Riverside, Calif.) both added four kills, while Ekum also finished with 10 assists. Addison Mertler (Jr.-Boca Raton, Fla.) added nine assists.

Ethan Klosak led Dominican with 11 kills, Jake Sidner posted nine kills and Luke Spicer added eight kills, four service aces and three blocks. Adam Eboli also posted seven kills in 10 attacks plus three service aces and four blocks.