RIVER FOREST, Ill. - The Rockford University men's volleyball team fell 3-0 on the road Saturday afternoon to the defending NACC Champion Dominican University Stars. The Regents are in the midst of a brutal four-match stretch in their schedule, where they play the top four teams in the conference who have a combined NACC record of 17-2, with both losses coming in matches against one another. Despite all that, Rockford battled throughout the match. The Regents were right there with Dominican in each set, but it was the Stars who closed strong every time en route to the 25-16, 25-18, 25-18 win.
- The Stars scored the first point of the match en route to jumping out to an early 10-5 lead.
- However, Rockford quickly pulled back to within two following a 5-2 spurt of its own. Josh Albers capped off the run with a kill to make the score 12-10.
- With the Stars still leading by two at 16-14, Dominican closed on a 9-2 run to win the set 25-16 and take a 1-0 lead.
- The second set began with Rockford leaping out to a quick 9-5 advantage. Nathan Simons led the RU attack with a kill and an ace, while Josh Albers, Jordan Hurst and Josh Bowling all chipped in a kill.
- Unfortunately, the Stars shot right back with a 6-1 run of their own to retake the lead at 11-10.
- The score went back and forth between a two and one-point lead for the Stars, until the Regents tied the set at 17-17 following a Dominican attack error.
- The Stars then proceeded to score the next seven points en route to winning the second set 25-18 and taking a 2-0 lead.
- The Regents got off to a slow start in the third set, falling behind 9-2.
- Rockford slowly chipped away at the deficit until it was just a four-point game after a Danny Karpenko ace made it 16-12.
- However, the Stars ran off four of the next five points to push their lead back up to seven at 20-13.
- Rockford was unable to get any closer than six the rest of the way, dropping the set 25-18 and the match 3-0.
- Nathan Simons led the Regents with 6 kills, 4 digs, 2 assists and a service ace.
- Jordan Hurst finished with 6 kills and 2 digs.
- Josh Albers added 9 assists, 4 kills, 2 digs and an ace.
