Thanks to Virginia Smith for the pictures

CHICAGO, Ill. -- The North Park University men's volleyball team lost 3-1 vs. the nationally ranked North Central Cardinals on Tuesday. 

The first two sets of the match went to the Cardinals who were superior at limiting their errors and finishing their attacks. The Vikings showed improvement between sets one and two though, and they carried this momentum into a successful third set. 

North Park limited their errors to 3 in the third set after combining for 13 through the first two. They established a 6-3 lead early but the Cardinals quickly went on a run of their own to even things up by the 11th point. From there, the Cardinals overtook the lead throughout the middle of the set until North Park once again could draw even at 19. Feeling the pressure, the Cardinals made multiple attacking errors over the final stretch that cost them the lead. The Vikings capitalized on these and ultimately took the set on a kill by Quinn Robinson by a score of 25-23. The Cardinals were able to tighten things up for the fourth and final set though, and they closed it out with a 25-20 victory to remain undefeated on the season. 

Quinn Robinson led the Vikings in kills and aces with 12 and 2, respectively. Erik Bullard also reached double-digit kills with 10 while recording 4 blocks. It was freshman Harrison Potts though leading the team in that regard with 7 blocks in his best game of his young career. Setter Teddy Gedville picked up 25 assists and libero Kaleb Patrick recorded 12 digs. 

What's Next?

Next up for North Park is a Saturday matchup at 3:00 P.M. against Loras. They will travel out to North Park Gymnasium to take on the Vikings who will be looking to build off this performance against one of the nation's best teams.