RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Roosevelt dropped both of its matches Friday at the tri-match hosted by Concordia Chicago in River Forest, Ill.

The Lakers (0-7) started off the day with a tough four-set loss to UW-Stevens Point before losing to the hosts in four sets as well. In both matches, Roosevelt was able to secure the opening set 26-24 before dropping the final three sets.

UW-STEVENS POINT 3, ROOSEVELT 1
The match started out slowly for Roosevelt and the first of the nine ties in the opening set came at 9-9. The Lakers found their groove by feeding Andrea Di Paola and Mark Zmojdzin, and the pair went to work on the attack. Zmojdzin had seven kills in the first set and hit .417 while Di Paola hit .556 with five kills on nine attacks. Yet Roosevelt still faced set point before Di Paola tied the set at 24 with a kill, and the Lakers' depth took over with Kajetan Bieniek and Achille Rustghi finishing the set with kills.

After hitting .395 as a team in the first set, the Lakers couldn't muster the same attacking efficiency for the rest of the match. Bieniek led the team with four kills in the second set, but Roosevelt never led after 10-9 and ended up surrendering the final six points after cutting the deficit to 19-18.

The third and fourth sets were similar to each other as the Pointers made a critical run in the middle of the set to break it open. Both sets ended 25-18 in favor of UW-Stevens Point with the Lakers never able to fully recover from those runs. In the third set, the Lakers never trailed by less than five in the second half of the set, and in the fourth, they cut the deficit to three before losing five of the final six points.

Di Paola led the Lakers with 13 kills and 12 digs against the Pointers, one of three Lakers with double-digit kills. Bieniek finished with 11 kills and Zmojdzin had 10, but he also recorded a double-double with 11 digs. DeShawn Hoston dished out 37 assists in the loss while Rustghi and Lachlan Diamond both had four blocks.

CONCORDIA CHICAGO 3, ROOSEVELT 1
Roosevelt never trailed in the first set after capturing the first three points of the match. The Lakers led by as many as four and found themselves with two set points, but squandered them to leave the set tied at 24. Bieniek and Zmojdzin closed the deal with back-to-back kills out of the timeout as four different Lakers had at least three kills in the opening set.

The second set got away from the Lakers a little bit early with the Cougars taking a 9-5 lead. Roosevelt never got closer than three the rest of the way as Concordia Chicago pulled away to take a lead as large as nine points. The Lakers fought back after falling behind 21-12, securing four straight points to force a timeout from the Cougars. However, Concordia Chicago won four of the next five points to secure the 25-17 win.

It was a tight third set in the early going with seven ties within the first 16 points of the set. Yet after being deadlocked at 8, Concordia Chicago went on a 9-2 run and never looked back en route to a 25-16 win in the third set. It wasn't much better in the fourth set for the Lakers as a 6-6 tie was broken by a 5-0 Cougars run and Roosevelt never got closer than three before losing 25-17.

Bieniek had 10 kills to lead the team and Di Paola had 11 digs, though it was Rustghi who was the most efficient with 8 kills on 16 swings for a .375 hitting percentage.

UP NEXT: The Lakers return to the Goodman Center on Tuesday night to face old rival Saint Xavier at 7 p.m.