AURORA, Ill. – Aurora University came out hot, stayed hot much of the match and the Lakeland University women's volleyball team took its first loss in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play, falling in three sets Saturday afternoon at Thornton Gymnasium.

The Spartans finished off a 25-16, 27-25, 25-17 win in a match that reduced to two the ranks of teams unbeaten in NACC play. Aurora joined Edgewood College as teams at 4-0 in conference, while the Muskies dropped to 3-1 in league play and 5-14 overall.

Lakeland was unable to cool the Spartans' attack, as the hosts hit .337 for the match with 48 kills and just 14 errors. Aurora (10-9 overall) hit .485 (19 kills, three errors) in winning the first set and never hit worse than .211 in any of the three sets.

The Muskies did let an opportunity slip away in the second set. Lakeland held a 19-13 lead late in the set after a string of three straight points off Spartan errors. The hosts came back to score eight of the next nine points, though, to go back ahead 21-20. The Muskies scored the next two with a kill by setter Sydney Gay (Fr.-Rice Lake, Wis.) and an ace by Lucero Velazquez (Jr.-Sheboygan, Wis.), but Aurora countered with three straight and finally capitalized on its third set point to win on a kill by Lilly Vance. The Spartans would not look back, never trailing in the final set on the way to the sweep.

Susana Stevens (Sr.-Las Cruces, N.M.) led Lakeland with 10 kills, but no other Muskie finished with more than five kills. Rylee Esquibel (Fr.-Devine, Texas) added five kills plus 11 digs, and Ryan Figi (So.-Hartland, Wis.) led the team with 13 digs. Gay also added 19 assists.

Kate Dillon and Kate Poellmann both posted 12 kills each for Aurora. Lulu Torres added 11 kills and 10 digs.

Lakeland is on the road again Thursday for its next match against Milwaukee School of Engineering at 7 p.m. in Milwaukee.