GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Rockford University men's volleyball team ended its weekend trip with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of North Park University. Rockford struggled to get much of anything going in the first two sets, but battled back and pushed the Vikings to the brink in the third set. The Regents had a match-high 12 kills and a solid .320 hitting percentage in the set. However, the Vikings were equally potent, tallying 14 kills and a .357 hitting percentage. Rockford led for a good portion of that set, but eventually dropped it to North Park along with the match.
- North Park opened the match by scoring the first seven points and never looked back.Â
- The Vikings used additional 3-0 and 4-0 spurts to take a 15-5 lead.Â
- The Regents were able to get back to within five, following a Danny Karpenko kill, at 20-15.
- Unfortunately, North Park scored five of the next seven points to win the opening set 25-17.
- Rockford opened the second set on a 3-0 run and took its first lead of the match. Josh Bowling and Josh Albers got things started with back-to-back kills.Â
- However, the Vikings answered with four straight points to take the lead.Â
- North Park eventually built its advantage up to six at 12-6 after yet another 4-0 run.Â
- With Rockford now only trailing by three at 13-10, the Vikings scored the next six points as a part of a larger 10-1 run to seize control of the set.Â
- The Vikings then went on to take the second set by a final score of 25-15.
- The third set was easily the best and most competitive of the match, with neither team leading by more than two points until the final moments.Â
- There were five ties over the first 18 points and Rockford took its first lead of the set at 10-9 on an Isaiah Dixon kill.Â
- Rockford would build its lead up to as many as two points on several occasions, with the last of those coming at 16-14 on a Jordan Hurst kill.Â
- With the score tied at 19-19, the Vikings ended the match on a 6-2 run to win the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.
