PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University men's volleyball team once again challenged one of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference's best teams but once again came up short, falling to Dominican University in four sets Saturday afternoon on Senior Day at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Muskies played at a high level for an extended stretch in the second and third periods but fell to the Stars 25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 25-15 in both teams' regular season finale. Dominican (16-7 overall, 11-1 NACC) wrapped up at least a share of the conference regular season crown and the top seed for next week's NACC Tournament.

Lakeland dropped to 7-16 overall and 4-8 in conference, and for several hours was left in a position of waiting to see if its NACC record would be good enough to take eighth and final spot in the NACC Tournament. The Muskies clinched the final spot in the tourney in the early evening, though, when Concordia University Chicago lost to Marian University in five sets, giving Lakeland the No. 8 seed in the tourney and another date with Dominican this Tuesday in River Forest, Ill.

The Muskies faced two of the NACC's best teams in a stretch of less than 48 hours to close out their regular season, and showed the potential to cause top seeds problems in the NACC Tournament. Lakeland took Aurora University to five sets on Thursday night before falling, and the Muskies played Dominican strong in the second and third sets Saturday before running out of gas in the fourth set.

Lakeland rebounded from a slow start to take a competitive second set that included 15 ties and four lead changes and saw neither team lead by more than two points. Dominican led 22-21 late, but the Muskies scored four of the final five points with Ben Busalacchi (Sr.-Muskego, Wis.) delivering a thunderous kill on set point to tie the match at one set each.

The teams traded blows early in the third set, and Lakeland held the upper hand after another kill by Busalacchi for an 11-8 lead. At that point much of the match's offense boiled down to Busalacchi and Eli Weinrich (So.-Mequon, Wis.) against Dominican's Casey Goss, who finished with a match-high 23 kills. Goss began to receive more help as the third and fourth sets went on, though, including Jarod Hesse with five kills in the third set. The Stars would be the ones to finish the third on a 4-1 run, with Goss's kill on set point putting Dominican ahead in the match.

The Stars then dominated the fourth set, hitting .483 with 15 kills and just one error. The Dominican block also stood tall with four of its 10 blocks in the fourth, and the guests pulled away from a close set early with a 13-4 run.

Busalacchi finished with 17 kills and a .344 hitting percentage as well as seven digs and four blocks (three solo). Weinrich also added 13 kills, and the two combined for 30 of Lakeland's 45 kills. The Muskies hit .171 for the match with 45 kills and 25 errors. Chase Anderson (So.-Hartford, Wis.) also finished with 41 assists and a team-best nine digs.

Goss posted 23 kills and Ty Geschke added 11 kills for Dominican with Hesse also posting 10 kills. The Stars hit .360 for the match with 56 kills and 15 errors, including .400 or better in the first, third and fourth sets.

Lakeland honored five senior members of this year's team before the match: Alessandro Bianchi (Venice, Italy), Drew Green (Brooklyn Center, Minn.), Ehdoh Htoo (Sheboygan, Wis.), Jacob Swigert (Sheboygan, Wis.) and Alex Zamora (Plainfield, Ill.).