DE PERE, Wis. – A night that was hoped to begin a long postseason run for the Lakeland University women's volleyball team instead was a quiet end to the season as St. Norbert College defeated the Muskies in three sets in the first round of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament Tuesday night.

The Green Knights were victorious on their home court, downing the Muskies 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 at the Mulva Family Fitness and Sports Center. No. 4 seed St. Norbert advances to the NACC semifinals to face top seed Concordia University Wisconsin Thursday, while Lakeland ends its season with a 16-14 record.

The Muskies and Green Knights played 2 1/2 weeks earlier at the same site, with St. Norbert winning 3-1 win in four long sets. That close result, combined with Lakeland's strong play entering the tourney as well as its playing four or five sets in 20 of its previous 29 matches this season, appeared to set the stage for a dandy second meeting between the teams.

Tuesday just would not be Lakeland's night. The Muskies were swept for just the fifth time in 30 matches, and their .056 hitting percentage was the team's second-lowest of the season, behind only a .027 performance against nationally ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in early September.

The Green Knights (16-13 overall) came out strong, hitting .262 with 16 kills and five errors and never trailing in the first set. St. Norbert then went on two big runs in the second set, first scoring six straight points to go ahead 13-8, then scoring six straight again as part of a 10-3 run to close the set and take a 2-0 lead.

The Muskies never led by more than two points in any of the three sets, but took an early 6-4 lead in the third on a kill by Katie Metzler (Jr.-Kewaunee, Wis.). St. Norbert soon followed with another run, though, scoring eight of the next nine points in going ahead 12-7 after an ace by Heidi Colburn.

Lakeland chipped away and retook the lead at 16-15 with consecutive service aces by Jaylin Urrutia (Fr.-San Antonio, Texas) to tie followed by an SNC attack error. A Metzler kill put the Muskies ahead again at 17-16, but the Green Knights scored the next three points and never trailed again. Lakeland was as close as 22-21 late after a kill by Kelly Swope (Jr.-Heyworth, Ill.), but the Green Knights scored the next two points and closed it out on their second match point on a kill by Brooke Clement.

Swope led the Muskies with nine kills and added three block assists as Lakeland matched St. Norbert with seven blocks by each team. Brelynn Scoles (Jr.-Kewaskum, Wis.) added even kills, but the Muskies finished with just 29 kills and 22 errors in 125 attacks.

Maeve Sullivan (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) posted a match-high 18 digs and Emily Duchow (Sr.-Potter, Wis.) added 22 assists. Metzler also finished with four blocks (one solo, three assisted).

Clement and Rylie Gregg each had 11 kills for St. Norbert, which attacked at a .178 rate with 42 kills and 19 errors. Clement also led the Green Knights with 17 digs.

The match was the final one for six Lakeland seniors, including Duchow, Matejka Abeita (Gallup, N.M.), Emily Bird (Union Grove, Wis.), Chloe Cunningham (Oviedo, Fla.), Julia Hanson (Algonquin, Ill.) and Lauren Myklebust (Wisconsin Dells, Wis.).