RIVER FOREST, Ill. - The Rockford University men's volleyball team (0-1, 0-1 NACC) opened its season on Thursday evening with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the sixth-ranked Dominican University Stars (3-0, 1-0 NACC). Despite falling in straight sets, the Regents led the Stars in multiple key categories. Rockford finished with more kills (30-to-24), more assists (29-to-23) and more total attacks (74-to-48). However, Dominican was extremely effective at serving and was able to limit its mistakes. The Stars led Rockford in service aces (10-to-0) and had less attack errors (8-to-22) and less service errors (6-to-15) than the Regents. 

• Rockford fell behind early in the first set and was never quite able to recover. 
• The Stars scored 11 of the first 14 points to jump out to a quick 11-3 lead. Dominican pushed its lead to as many as 12 points en route to winning the set 25-13.
• Fortunately, the Regents played significantly better in the second set. 
• Rockford opened on a 3-1 run to take its first lead of the match. James Davenport began the set with a kill, and Nathan Vana was responsible for the other two kills over that span. 
• With Rockford still holding a two-point lead at 9-7, Dominican used a 3-0 run to grab its first lead of the set. 
• The Stars would extend their lead to two points at 12-10 before Rockford went on a 6-1 run, capped off by a Connor McNear kill, to leap back in front 16-13. Matthew Seger had a pair of kills and Nathan Vana also had a kill during the run. 
• With the Regents still leading by a point at 20-19, the Stars found their rhythm late in the set. Dominican scored six of the final eight points to steal the second set 25-22 and take a 2-0 advantage. 
• Unfortunately, the third set followed a near identical pattern as the first. The Stars opened with an 11-3 run and never looked back. 
• Rockford did not really threaten for the remainder of the match, as Dominican went on to win the set 25-10 and the match 3-0. 

• James Davenport finished with a match-high 9 kills, 3 assists and 2 digs. 
• Nathan Vana added 8 kills.
• Jett Stewart tallied a match-high 25 assists, a team-high 5 digs, 2 block assists and 2 kills. 
• Matthew Seger had 6 kills and 2 digs. 

The RU men's volleyball team opens the home portion of its schedule next Monday, February 22 against Illinois Wesleyan. The match has a scheduled start time of 7 PM in the Seaver Center.