DE PERE, Wis. - The Rockford University men's volleyball team dropped its penultimate match of the season 3-1 (25-22, 25-12, 24-26, 25-10) on the road Wednesday evening to the St. Norbert College Green Knights. Despite the loss, Rockford played one of its better all-around matches of the season. The Regents finished with 36 kills, 36 assists, 5 aces, 45 digs, 47 points and 6 total blocks, all of which were in Rockford's top five totals in a match this year.
- Rockford took an early 8-5 lead on the heels on a trio of kills from Nathan Vana.
- With the Regents still leading by the three at 10-7 following an Isaiah Dixon kill, the Green Knights went on a 12-1 run to take their first lead in the set at 19-11.
- However, Rockford continued to battle and fought all the way back to within a single point at 23-22. Connor McNear led the charge with two kills and a block to cap off the run.
- Unfortunately, St. Norbert scored the final two points to win the set 25-22 and take a 1-0 lead.
- The second set went back and forth over the first 21 points with St. Norbert clinging to an 11-10 advantage.
- Unfortunately, the Regents were outscored 14-2 the rest of the way and dropped the second set 25-12.
- Things did not look good for Rockford early in the third set as the Regents found themselves in a 15-7 hole.
- However, Rockford responded with an 8-1 run to narrow the Green Knight lead down to one. Isaiah Dixon scored Rockford's final three points, two off kills and one via a service ace.
- With St. Norbert now leading by three at 22-19, Rockford scored the next three points off kills by Joaquin Santillan, Isaiah Dixon and Tsubasa Namai to tie the set.
- The two schools traded points until the Green Knights were back out in front 24-23.
- Fortunately, the Regents ran off the final three points, capped off by block assists from Connor McNear and Isaiah Dixon, to win the set 26-24.
- Unfortunately, the fourth set belonged to the Green Knights. St. Norbert scored the first three points and then used a 10-2 run to grab an 18-7 lead. Rockford never got any closer than ten the rest of the way, dropping the fourth set 25-10 and the match 3-1.
- Nathan Vana finished with a team-high 11 kills, a .500 hitting percentage, 5 digs, 2 blocks and an ace.
- Isaiah Dixon had 10 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces, 2 blocks and an assist.
- Josh Albers tallied 14 assists, 3 digs, 1 ace and 1 kill.
- Tsubasa Namai recorded 14 assists, 4 digs, 1 ace, 1 block and 1 kill.
- Da'Quan Bates finished with 13 digs and 5 assists.
