RIVER FOREST, Illinois --- The Wabash College volleyball team battled in the third set to stay alive at  Dominican University Friday evening but came up short in a 3-0 loss to the host Stars 3-0.
 
Wabash (12-4) tied the score 20 times in the final set and held the lead five times before Dominican (7-7) came back to earn a 29-27 victory in the final set. The Stars won the first two sets by scores of 25-23 and 25-20.
 
Wabash played to five ties in the opening set after holding an early 2-0 lead before Dominican eventually took a 17-16 lead. The Stars never trailed again, claiming the 25-23 win.
 
The Little Giants traded five leads with eight ties in the second set. Wabash owned a 15-14 advantage until the Stars reeled off three consecutive points to move in front for the final time on the way to the 25-20 set win.
 
Wabash raced out to a 5-2 advantage in what proved to be the night's final set. Dominican evened the score at 5-5 and eventually took a 12-9 edge in the set. The Little Giants came fighting back, scoring five consecutive points to move in front 14-12. Dominican rallied to eventually even the score at 16-16. Neither team held more than a one-point edge, playing to a 27-27 tie before the Stars scored the final two points of the match for the 29-27 victory.
 
Bawibawi Thang and Jackson Leeper paced the Wabash offense with double-digit kills. Thang recorded 12 kills in the match, with Leeper adding 10 more while hitting at a .412 clip. Matthew Stitle gave out a career-best 36 assists. Thang and Stitle each made seven digs on defense for the Little Giants.
 
Wabash wraps up its three-match Chicagoland series with two games at the Illinois Institute of Technology on Saturday. The Little Giants open against the Milwaukee School of Engineering at 3:30 p.m. Central Time before facing the host Scarlet Hawks at 6 p.m.