CHICAGO – Roosevelt lacked the finishing touch Tuesday night in dropping a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference matchup with Cardinal Stritch in four sets.

The Lakers (6-12, 3-5 CCAC) took the opening set 25-21 before dropping a heartbreaker 28-26 in the second. They never fully recovered after that and lost the third and fourth sets by identical 25-20 margins. Shawn McCarthy led Roosevelt with 14 kills while Conrad Para added 12 kills on a .304 hitting percentage in the match. Daniel Mahoney finished with a team-best 15 digs and McCarthy added 12 of his own, and Tony Galeana set up 37 assists in the loss.

Roosevelt lost the first four points of the match before steadying itself by winning the next four points. Cardinal Stritch took a 5-4 and 6-5 lead, but never again had an advantage in the set as the Lakers methodically pulled away thanks to the Wolves' errors. Just one of Roosevelt's final seven points came courtesy of its own offense, but the Lakers also had just three offensive errors in the opening set.

The Lakers rode the momentum from capturing the first set into the second by winning the first four points of the set. They were able to keep the Wolves at bay for most of the opening set by limiting Cardinal Stritch's runs with some timely offense from their outside hitters. However, the Wolves won five straight points to take a 14-11 lead with the final three points in that run coming courtesy of Roosevelt errors. The Lakers fell behind by as many as five, but were able to rally back to grab a set point at 24-23. Roosevelt was able to stave off two set points from Cardinal Stritch before the Wolves were finally able to close out the set.

Statistically, the third set looked like a lost cause for the Lakers after they quickly fell behind by six points. They rallied to tie the set at 18 and again at 19, but they couldn't find that magic touch at 21-20 and allowed the final four points of the set. It was a gutsy performance from Roosevelt considering it had just six kills compared to nine errors.

Joseph Claffy had two of his six kills in the match during the first five points of the fourth set to help the Lakers take an early 4-1 lead. Yet the Wolves took the next four points before McCarthy stopped the bleeding with a kill. The teams traded points until Cardinal Stritch made three errors during a 4-0 Roosevelt run to give the Lakers a 13-11 advantage. However, the Lakers began to lose their accuracy and helped the Wolves win six straight points by committing four errors, turning a 14-12 lead into an 18-14 deficit. Roosevelt could never recover and lost for the fifth time in their last six matches while snapping a four-match winning streak in matches in which it won a set.

Roosevelt hosts No. 13 St. Xavier on Thursday at 7 p.m at the Goodman Center in the first of two meetings this season with the CCAC leaders.