DE PERE, Wis. -- A promising first-set start for the North Park men's volleyball team fell by the wayside on Tuesday night as the Vikings fell to the St. Norbert Green Knights in four sets (25-22, 21-25, 18-25, 13-25).

In what would become a tightly-contested first set, North Park scored the first three points of the match thanks to a pair of Green Knight attacking errors and a kill by Sam Robinson. However, the 3-0 lead would turn into a 4-4 where neither team could gain more than a two-point advantage until halfway through the set. With the score tied at 15-15, the Vikings rattled off four of the next five points on kills from sophomore outside hitter Pablo Ocasio, and senior setter Teddy Gedville, and senior utility player Kaleb Patrick. NPU would ride this momentum through the rest of the set, hitting .324 with 15 kills and just three errors, to win the opener 25-22.

Unfortunately, St. Norbert stole away the next three on their home court. The Green Knights improved in each set, opening the night with a .200 attacking percentage in the first before improving to .324, .357, and .370 in the final three sets of the night. St. Norbert's Kaden Kornaus led the charge with a match-leading 21 aces while North Park's Ocasio set another career high with 17 kills followed closely by Robinson's 15, which was also a career high. Those kills numbers are good for third and tenth all-time in NPU's four-set match history.

Defensively, North Park's senior middle blocker Parker Payne, junior outside hitter Vicente Cabrera, and Robinson all had three blocks.

What's Next?

North Park (3-5) will host its first tri-match of the season this coming Saturday, Feb. 10, beginning with Wittenberg at noon before Aurora follows at 5:00 PM.