The Carthage College men's volleyball team (6-4, 4-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 5 in the Feb. 17 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, defeated conference-opponent Lakeland College (8-6, 3-2 MCVL), 3-2, and then fell to No. 1 Stevens Institute of Technology (10-4), 3-0, at the quadrangular meet on Saturday, Feb. 21.

The Red Men winning set scores over the Muskies were 19-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-27, and 15-11. The Ducks winning set scores were 25-21, 25-20, and 25-22. In the neutral-site matches, University of California-Santa Cruz (13-3) blanked Lakeland College, 3-0, and then later defeated Stevens, 3-1. The Banana Slugs winning set scores over Lakeland were 25-22, 25-22, and 25-17 and over Stevens were 25-19, 25-23, 16-25, and 25-16.
 
In the Lakeland match, Carthage got off to a slow start in the first set. The Muskies opened match play with a five-point lead, 10-15. The Red Men were able to pull within three points, 13-16, with a kill by Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley). However, Lakeland then created leads of 16-21 and 17-23 until finally closing out the first 25-19. In the second The Muskies took the early lead at 2-5, but the Red Men tied the score up at 5-5 with an ace from Ricky Figueroa (Fr., Newbury Park, Ca./Oaks Christian) and then took the lead 14-12 with a kill by Storm. Carthage continued to capitalize on their lead creating a four-point lead, 21-17, with a kill from Zach Lillig (Fr., Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North). The Red Men then pulled ahead 24-21 with a kill by storm but the Muskies battled back to tie the score 24-24, however, Carthage won the set with back-to-back kills from Storm and Scotty Adamczyk (Jr., Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South), 26-24.
 
In the third set, the Red Men took the lead early on, opening with a score of 9-6 from kills by Lillig and Storm. Carthage continued to pull ahead of Lakeland, creating a six-point lead, 17-11, with a kill from Matt Ciaglia (Sr., Roselle, Ill./Lake Park West). The Red Men then created leads of 21-14 and 22-16 until closing out the third set 25-21. Carthage stated off the fourth set strong with a three-point lead, 11-8, off of back-to-back kills from Lillig and then Adamczyk. However, Lakeland fought back to tie the score at 15-15 and then pulled ahead 19-23. The Red Men pulled within two, 22-24 with a block by Matt Klingspohn (Sr., Glendale, Wis./Nicolet and Ciaglia and then tied the score up at 24-24 with a kill by Adamczyk. The Muskies continued to battle and took the second set 27-25. It was a battle at the beginning of the fifth set, Carthage opened with a two-point lead, 7-5, however, Lakeland fought back to tie the game at 8-8. The Red Men kept their attack strong and created a three-point lead, 13-10, with a kill by Adamczyk. Carthage kept strong to win the match and close out the fifth set with a kill by Storm, 15-11.
 
"We started out really flat," said head coach L.J. Marx, "we changed a lot of our lineup and we were looking for a group of guys to really compete and I think we found that and got ourselves a win, which is fantastic."
 
In the match against Stevens, Carthage opened with a kill by Ciaglia, who then had back-to-back aces to bring the score to 4-1. The Ducks remained competitive with the Red Men and came back to tie the score at 5-5. From there, Carthage never led by more than two points until Stevens came back and took control of the game at 11-12. The Ducks remained dominant and created four-point leads over the Red Men at 11-15 and 15-19. Carthage pulled within two points at 20-22 with back-to-back kills by Storm.  Stevens kept strong and took the first set 25-21.

The Red Men opened the second set with an ace from Figueroa, however, the Ducks quickly created a six-point lead, 4-10. An ace by Kevin Landgraf (Fr., Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) allowed Carthage to pull within three points of Stevens at 9-12, but the Ducks responded and created a five-point lead, 12-17, and a six-point lead, 14-20. The Red Men pulled within three points, 18-21, with a kill by Storm, but Stevens kept their attack strong and closed out the second set 25-20. In the third, Ciaglia opened the set, 2-0, with back-to-back blocks for Carthage. However, Stevens tied the game at 3-3 and kept the score close, neither team leading by more than two points, until Carthage pulled ahead 12-9 with a kill by Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley). The Red Men created leads of 14-11 and 17-14. The Ducks continued to battle with the Red Men until they retied the game up at 19-19 and then took the lead, 19-21. Stevens remained steady and won the set 25-22.
 
"Stevens is very good and a very big, very physical team. They did a lot of nice things," continued Marx, "They are a very experienced, very mature team, which is what we are lacking and we can't get that until we get upperclassmen, so it's going to take some time."
 
Storm led the Red Men in the game against the Muskies with 22 kills and a .365 attacking percentage. Marc Hansen (So., Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn) collected 15 digs and Figueroa had 49 assists. Alec Redlich led Lakeland with 21 kills and nine digs. In the game against Stevens, Storm led Carthage with 12 kills and a .219 attacking percentage. Figueroa had 37 assists and Hansen collected 12 digs. David Evans led the Ducks with 12 kills and 7 digs.
 
"Jon (Storm) is one of those seniors that stepped up and played great," said Marx, "Figueroa did a great job too and ran a great offense."
 
Carthage plays host to conference-opponent Dominican University (Ill., 5-3, 5-0) on Wednesday, Feb. 25, in a 7 p.m. match at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.