Nationally ranked Dominican University played spoiler as the Lakeland University men's volleyball team was defeated in three sets Friday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Stars were nearly flawless on the attack and swept the Muskies 25-15, 25-11, 25-21 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference contest. Lakeland dropped to 2-8 overall and 0-1 in conference after falling to a Dominican team ranked 14th in the NVA/AVCA NCAA Division III Top 15 Coaches Poll.

The Stars (2-0 overall, 2-0 NACC) hit .438 for the match with 41 kills and just six errors in 80 attacks. Dominican hit at least .400 in all three sets and played from ahead almost the entire night in cruising to victory.

The Muskies led briefly at the start of the first set before Dominican took control, and would not challenge again until the third set, when Lakeland hung close most of the way. The Muskies took advantage of four Stars service errors and two kills each by Cameron Ekum (Jr.-Wales, Wis.) and Matt Misheck (Jr.-Oak Forest, Ill.) and were tied as late as 13-13. Dominican followed with a 6-1 run, though, and closed out the match soon after.

Nate Vanderwaal (Sr.-Rockford, Ill.) led Lakeland with eight kills and added six digs. Misheck also finished with seven kills and six digs and Ekum finished with four kills plus 17 assists. The Muskies hit .011 for the match with 22 kills and 21 errors in 91 attacks.

Maui Viola (Jr.-Gurnee, Ill.) was kept busy by Dominican's hard-hitting lineup and paced the back row defense with eight digs.

George Kougan and Ethan Klosak both finished with nine kills each for Dominican. Jack McGuire finished with 40 assists, Bregin DeMarco notched a match-high 10 digs and Mat Molloy finished with four block assists.

Lakeland is back in action at home tomorrow morning when it hosts Adrian (Mich.) College in a non-conference match starting bright and early at 10 a.m.