MILWAUKEE – Top seed Milwaukee School of Engineering set a blistering pace and Lakeland University saw its season come to a close with a three-set loss in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Men's Volleyball Tournament semifinals Friday night.

The fifth-seeded Muskies were defeated 25-16, 25-22, 25-17 on the Raiders' home court, coming up short of their first-ever trip to the NACC Tournament championship game. MSOE advanced to Saturday's final and will host No. 2 seed Dominican University, which swept Aurora University in three sets in the first semifinal match Friday night.

Lakeland (14-13 overall) saw a five-match winning streak snapped as MSOE hit at a high rate all night. The 11th-ranked team in the AVCA NCAA Division III Top 15 Coaches Poll posted 41 kills and just 11 errors for a .380 hitting percentage.

The hosts played biggest in a close second set, where both teams traded blows with powerful attacks. The Muskies hit .406 with 15 kills and just two errors in 32 attempts, but MSOE was even better with a .441 hitting percentage with 17 kills and two errors.

The teams were tied 14 times in that second set, and Lakeland led 17-16 late in the set before the Raiders turned the tide with five straight points. The Muskies fought back to get within one point at 22-21 and 23-22, but a pair of MSOE kills ended the set and put Lakeland in a two-set hole.

The Muskies were unable to capture that level of play in the final set with just six kills to four errors. Lakeland finished hitting .218 for the match with 29 kills and 12 errors in 78 attacks, with Nathan Vanderwaal (Jr.-Rockford, Ill.) leading with 10 kills and Dakota Hunter (Sr.-Waukesha, Wis.) adding six kills.

Jacob Sirny led the Raiders with 11 kills and Austyn Bella and Ben Pung both added nine kills each. MSOE also posted a big advantage on serve with nine aces.

Desmond Williams (Sr.-Riverside, Calif.) added five kills and two blocks (one solo, one assisted). Cameron Ekum (So.-Mukwonago, Wis.) posted 19 assists, four digs and two block assists, J.T. Levitt (Sr.-Schaumburg, Ill.) finished with four digs and Tali Coleman (Jr.-Honolulu, Hawaii) added two block assists.

The match was the final for seven Lakeland seniors, including Hunter, Levitt, Williams, Noah Cotterman (Glendale, Ariz.), Ryan Frankel (Palatine, Ill.) and Addison Mertler (Boca Raton, Fla.). Mertler posted seven assists to finish his career with a school-record 2,554 assists, while Levitt finished with a Lakeland-record 885 digs.