KENOSHA, Wis. – Roosevelt opened its conference campaign Thursday evening with a straight-sets defeat at Parkside in the first Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game of the season for anyone in the league.

The tone of the match was set early when the Rangers jumped out to a 4-0 lead and prompted a quick timeout from the Lakers. The stoppage proved to be what Roosevelt (1-8, 0-1 GLIAC) needed at the time as the team quickly snapped into action. Alessia Isgro came up with a kill out of the timeout then Abigail Wutka came up with three kills during a 5-0 Lakers run to give Roosevelt a 7-6 advantage.

Neither team was able to gain much momentum through the middle of the first set with both sides edging out to one and two-point leads before being pulled back. Wutka seemed to give Roosevelt a much-needed boost with her solo block to make it 16-15 Parkside, but the Rangers rattled off the final nine points of the set to take the lead.

The Lakers never fell behind by much in the second set with their biggest deficit being just three points until the end. The teams were tied 13 times in the second set and the lead changed hands nine times as the two conference rivals battled back and forth. The final time the lead flipped came when the Lakers held a 21-20 edge and could not find the floor on their attacks. Parkside would go on to score the final five points of the set to take a 2-0 lead.

It felt like the third set was going to follow the lead of the first two sets when Parkside jumped out to a 3-0 lead and Roosevelt responded to narrow the gap to 4-3. Yet this time, there was no catching the Rangers as they surged from there and never looked back. The 25-9 set was the end of the road for the Lakers in their fifth consecutive match at Parkside's arena.

Wutka led the Lakers with seven kills and Isgro added six while freshman Lillian Hallahan set a season high with four kills. Zoe Hutchinson had 14 assists to pace Roosevelt and Isa Grana added nine helpers while once again Cydney Martinez hit double figures in digs with 12. Wutka was also part of all three blocks Roosevelt had in the match, adding assisted blocks alongside Kaylee Bayer and Nekane Parera to her solo block in the first.

UP NEXT: The Lakers finally return to the Goodman Center on Friday evening for their home opener as they welcome Purdue Northwest for a 6 p.m. first serve. The two teams split their meetings last season with Roosevelt claiming an epic five-set win on the road last year.