The Carthage College men's volleyball team (12-4, 9-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 7 in the March 4 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, defeated the Milwaukee School of Engineering (11-9, 3-5 MCVL), 3-0, on Tuesday, March 10, at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The winning set scores for the Red Men were 28-26, 25-17, and 25-18.
 
Carthage opened with a six-point lead, 10-4, over MSOE with a kill by Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley). The Raiders battled back to tie the score at 12-12, however, the Red Men kept their defense strong and created a three-point lead, 15-12 with a block by Matt Ciaglia (Sr., Rosell, Ill./Lake Park West) and Shields. Carthage further capitalized on their lead to pull ahead 20-18, with a kill by Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Nequa Valley), however, MSOE kept a tight match and tied it at 20-20. For the remainder of the set, neither team pulled more than one point ahead of the other until a kill by Scotty Adamczyk (Jr., Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) followed by a Raider attack error closed out a first set win for the Red Men 28-26.
 
In the second, Carthage opened with a four-point lead, 12-8, and a kill by Shields. The Red Men continued to play strong and pulled ahead by six points, 19-13, with a kill by Storm. MSOE could not recover their deficit and Carthage finished the set with a kill by Shields, 25-17. An eight-point lead, 14-6, started off the third set strong for the Red Men. Kills by Shields gave Carthage leads of 18-9 and 22-14 over MSOE. Once again, the Red Men kept control of the match and finished out the set 25-18.
 
"Not our finest performance," said head coach LJ Marx, "I would have liked to see us be a little bit cleaner, but we did some good things at the right times, which helped us out tonight"
 
Shields led the Red Men with 15 kills and a .357 attacking percentage, while both teammates Storm and Zach Lillig (Fr., Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) had six kills. Ricky Figueroa (Fr., Newberry Park, Ca./Oaks Christian) collected 31 assists and Marc Hansen (So., Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn) had eight digs. Nick Manning led the Raiders with 11 kills and three digs.
 
"It's going to be a tough one, Mount St. Joseph is a very good team," said Marx, "It's back to the same thing where everybody is chasing us. We've got a little bit of a cushion, but we can't rest on that. We got to step our game up."
 
Carthage plays host to a Friday, March 13 triangular at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The Red Men take on conference-opponent the College of Mount St. Joseph on Friday, March 13, at 3 p.m. followed by Mount St. Joseph versus Kean University at 5 p.m., and Carthage taking on Kean at 7 p.m.