DUBUQUE, Iowa – The Loras College men's volleyball team came up short in a tightly contested five set Elite Eight match against No. 4 California Lutheran University on Saturday evening inside the Lillis Athletic and Wellness Center.

The Kingsmen controlled set one, posting an 8-1 run, which broke the 4-4 tie to hold a 12-5 lead early on. The Duhawks were never able to get closer than within five, ultimately falling 25-18 in the opening set.

Both squads fought for every point in the second set, with neither team holding a lead larger than two points until the final point of the set. Cal Lutheran (24-5 overall) closed out set two with a kill from Michael Stahl to take the set 25-22 and hold a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Duhawks and Kingsmen traded points in the beginning of the third set, but Loras (25-2) created some separation after rattling off four straight points to take a 16-13 lead. The Purple and Gold would hold onto that lead and force a fourth set with a 25-20 victory in set three.

Loras led by as many as four (17-13) in the fourth set, but Cal Lutheran battled back to tie the score up four more times before a Corey Mayotte kill gave the Duhawks the 25-23 set win.

The Purple and Gold benefited from a trio of Kingsmen errors and a kill by Tyler Kratochvil to take a 4-1 lead early on. Cal Lutheran utilized a 9-4 run to regain the lead (10-8), but kills by Mayotte and Dorian Fiorenza and a block by Sean Wenzel and Kratochvil knotted the score at 11-11. The visitors advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament with a 15-13 victory in the final set.

"The resilience they showed, the leadership they showed, the composure, I mean you can throw every word at it in the book, but to sit down and just execute in that third set after the air was sucked out of this place, I bet there was 18 of us and the coaching staff that believed and that was probably it," said head coach Dylan Ross. "Theres not a single person in that gym that doesn't respect us."

Mayotte led the Duhawks offensively once again, finishing with 28 kills, while Fiorenza totaled 15 kills on the night. Joe Horn dished out 47 assists, while Kratochvil, Wenzel and Roman Rothermel tallied two blocks apiece. Mayotte and Horn also added double-digit digs to their stat lines, posting 11 and 10 respectively. Loras hit .257, which included 59 kills and 22 errors in 144 attempts.