BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – Roosevelt slumped to its fifth straight defeat with a straight-sets setback at Olivet Nazarene on Tuesday evening in Bourbonnais.

The Lakers (6-15) were competitive with the Tigers for most of the match before succumbing to a 25-18, 25-19, 25-22 defeat. This was despite the fact they hit just .041 as a team in the three sets and no one had more than Joseph Claffy's six kills.

After dropping the opening point, the Lakers surged to a 3-1 lead behind a service error from Olivet Nazarene and a quick pair of aces from Tony Galeana. That kickstarted a set of runs as the Tigers scored the next five points followed by the Lakers winning five of the next six to take a one-point lead. Olivet Nazarene broke a 10-all deadlock with four straight points and extended the lead out to 18-12 before Roosevelt stormed back to cut the deficit to 20-18. However, the Tigers served up two aces and slammed down two kills to win the final five points of the set.

The two teams were trading points to start the second set before Shawn McCarthy stepped up to serve at 14-14. The Tigers won the next six points to claim control of the set as the Lakers made three attacking errors during that stretch. Once again, the teams began to trade points before Olivet Nazarene clinched the second set with a kill.

Roosevelt's energy looked to wear thin early in the third set as Olivet Nazarene took the first four points courtesy of a pair of errors from the Lakers. Yet DeShawn Hoston got hot at the service line with a pair of aces after a Claffy kill to even the score. The Tigers won five straight points to claim a 13-7 advantage, but the Lakers rallied to eventually tie the set at 19. Two errors gifted Olivet Nazarene another lead, but the Lakers forced two errors from the Tigers to tie the score again. The Tigers would then serve their final two of the 10 aces they had in the match as part of the 4-1 run to close out the match.

Conrad Para also had two aces for the Lakers in the match to go along with five kills while Galena assisted on 15 kills. Favio Lopez-Para played as the libero for the second straight night, but made an impact with four kills and no errors on his six attacks in the match. Claffy also was part of two of Roosevelt's three blocks in the match, raising his total to 43 on the season.

The Lakers return home to the Goodman Center on Thursday night at 7 p.m. for the final home match of the season against Trinity Christian. Prior to the match, Roosevelt will honor its senior class, all of whom joined the Lakers during the merger with Robert Morris.