The Carthage College men's volleyball team (2-2, 0-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 5 in the Jan. 27 American Volleyball Coaches Association pre-season NCAA Division III poll, lost to No. 1 Juniata College (7-0), 3-2, on Saturday, January 31, at Tarble Arena. The Eagles' winning set scores over the Red Men were 26-24, 17-25, 18-25, 25-16, and 15-9.
 
"We played tentative and scared at times," said Carthage head coach L.J. Marx, "We also showed for two sets how good we can be."
 
The Red Men got off to a strong start at the beginning of the first set creating a five-point lead, 7-2, with a kill by J.P. Tulacka (Jr., Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove-North). However, Juniata got on the attack and created a tie at 11-11. Here, a Carthage timeout allowed the Red Men to regroup and again pull ahead of the Eagles at 17-15, with a kill by Will Craft (Jr., Crete, Ill./Chicago Heights-Marian Catholic) from the right side. Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) got on a run and had a kill followed by two service aces, to give Carthage a 20-17 lead over Juniata. However, the Eagles quickly responded and pulled ahead at 23-24, until finally closing out the first set, 26-24.
 
In the second, the Red Men got off to a commanding lead and opened with a 7-2 lead with a kill by Storm. Juniata closed the gap between Carthage by pulling within two points at 12-10. However, the Red Men stepped up their offense and three kills from Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and one each from Tulacka and Ryan Paull (So., Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) allowed Carthage to take a five-point lead at 18-13. The Red Men continued to capitalize on their lead and finished out the second set, 25-17. The Red Men proved to be a competitor again in the third by quickly creating leads of 9-4, 13-8, and 18-12 over the Eagles. Back-to-back kills from Tulacka and Craft kept Carthage strong in the third, creating a nine-point lead, 21-12 over Juniata. Finally, a kill by Shields closed out the third set for the Red Men, 25-18.
 
"We have a long way to go," continued Marx, "We proved for two sets that we can compete at the highest level, and we also showed what can happen when we decide to take a victory for granted."
 
The Eagles came out strong in the fourth set and opened with a score of 9-1 over the Red Men. Carthage was able to close the gap and come within five-points, 6-11, of Juniata with back-to-back kills from Shields. However, the Eagles kept their attack strong and allowed for little errors to create leads of 17-11 and 20-14, until finally closing out the fourth set 25-16. The score remained close at the beginning of the fifth set, with Juniata only leading Carthage by one point at 3-4 and 6-7. The Eagles, however, continued to keep strong over the Red Men and pulled ahead at 7-10 until finally Juniata's Chad Albert had a kill to close out the set and the match 15-9.
 
"We've got some refocusing and disciplining to do before we get into the meat and potatoes of our season," said Marx, "The good news is, this showed us exactly what we need to get better at for the course of the season. The bad news is, we don't have a tremendous amount of time to work on it. So it's going to be, as I've said to everybody all season long, it's going to be a work in progress this season. We've made some great strides to this point of time, but we still have a long way to go."
 
Shields had a game-high 21 kills for Carthage and a .239 attacking percentage. Craft had 12 kills and seven digs, while teammate Storm had 11 kills, 8 digs, and a .500 attacking percentage. Tyler Saieg (So., Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove-North) had 58 assists and Marc Hansen (So., Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn) collected 12 digs in the match against Juniata. Justin Waldorf and Joe Bortak led the Eagles, each with nine kills.
 
Carthage opens conference play next Saturday, Feb. 7, by playing host to Benedictine University (Ill.) in a 1 p.m. match at Tarble Arena.