KENOSHA, Wis. – Roosevelt could not build on its early momentum and dropped its finale at the Hampton Inn Invitational to McKendree in four sets on Sunday morning in Kenosha, Wis.

The first set was a roller coaster that the Lakers (1-7) held on to win 25-22, but the magic did not return as the Bearcats claimed the other sets 25-20-, 25-18 and 25-19. Alessia Isgro led the Lakers with 12 kills in the match and Abigail Wutka added 11 kills of her own. Four different Roosevelt players had at least five assists in the match, led by Zoe Hutchinson's 13, while Lillian Hallahan led the seven Lakers with at least five digs with eight of her own.

Even with an early-morning start, the Lakers brought the juice to begin the match with Hutchinson serving up an ace to kick off a run of six straight points. McKendree stayed patient and found its own 6-0 run to take a 15-12 edge, which the Bearcats later extended out to 20-15. Yet that is when Roosevelt pounced, scoring eight consecutive points with three kills from Isgro, two from Lihi Zaibert and an ace from Jessica Maier.

Roosevelt fell behind early in the second set, but still managed to rally to cut the deficit to four before the Bearcats evened the match. The Lakers fell behind 7-2 in the third set as well, but rallied for five straight points to tie the set. The third stayed tight for much of the remainder of the set, but the Bearcats pulled away late to take the lead.

The first three sets contained 10 ties total, but the fourth was tied on 10 different occasions as the two teams battled back and forth. Wutka had four kills in the fourth set, but the Lakers could not string together consecutive points long enough to stay in contact as McKendree pulled away.

UP NEXT: Roosevelt will play a fifth consecutive match at Parkside on Thursday, but this time the Lakers will face the hosts in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener for both teams. The Rangers claimed both matches in straight sets last season.