DE PERE, Wis. – Sage Xiong (So.-Erie, Colo.) racked up 11 kills but the Lakeland University men's volleyball team was defeated in three sets by St. Norbert College Tuesday night in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match.

The Green Knights rolled to a 25-20, 25-20, 25-16 win to snap the Muskies' brief two-game winning streak. Lakeland dropped to 5-7 overall and 0-2 in the NACC, while St. Norbert earned its first conference win of the season and moved to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in the league play.

After consecutive road wins late last week against Greenville (Ill.) University and Westminster (Mo.) College, the Muskies were unable ot summon up another strong showing on the road as the Green Knights largely dominated throughout, including posting a .471 hitting percentage in the first set with 17 kills and just one error. The hosts also posted a big advantage in blocks and never trailed in the final two sets.

Lakeland's best set was the opening one, when the teams went back and forth with eight ties and four lead changes early. The Muskies held a lead at 10-9 after a kill by Colin Putchinski (Fr.-Waukesha, Wis.), but St. Norbert answered with the next five points to take a 14-10 lead.

Lakeland would not lead again in the match. SNC went on to win the first set and cooled only slightly in the final two sets, hitting .344 (17 kills, six errors) in the second set and .320 (10 kills, two errors) in the third set. The Green Knights jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the second set, and then built leads of 6-2 and then 13-5 in the final set on the way to cruising home.

Xiong posted 11 kills and a .360 hitting percentage, Eli Weinrich (Sr.-Mequon, Wis.) finished with eight kills and Putchinski added seven kills. Chase Anderson (Sr.-Hartford, Wis.) also posted 29 assists.

Lakeland hit .176 for the match, posting 39 kills but also 21 errors. The Muskies also went without a service ace and were on the wrong end of St. Norbert's 10-1 advantage in blocks.

Jacob Van Ooyen paced the Green Knights with 12 kills. St. Norbert finished hitting .385 with 44 kills and nine errors.

Lakeland is back home Saturday to host its Valentine's Day quadrangular, which will include matches against Wittenberg (Ohio) University at 1 p.m. and UC Santa Cruz at 3 p.m.