The Carthage College men's volleyball team (14-6, 10-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 8 in the March 17 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, fell to No. 3 the State University of New York-New Paltz (17-3), 3-1, on Wednesday, March 18, at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The winning set scores for the Hawks were 25-18, 25-17, 20-25, and 25-19.
 
Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) opened up first-set play for the Red Men with a kill and a tied score of 3-3. Carthage pulled ahead to 6-5, with a kill from Zach Lillig (Fr., Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North), however, New Paltz fought back to create a six-point lead at 14-8. An ace from Matt Ciaglia (Sr., Roselle, Ill./Lake Park West) brought the Red Men within five, 16-11, but the Hawks continued to stay on the attack and took the first set 25-18. The second set opened with a tie of 5-5. Back-to-back kills from J.P. Tulacka (Jr., Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove-North) and Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) followed by a Tyler Saieg (So., Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove-North)/Ciaglia block, pushed Carthage ahead 8-5. New Paltz battled back to tie the score at 13-13 and then create a three-point lead, 17-14. From there, the Hawks continued to capitalize on their lead and finished the second set 25-17.
 
A block by Shields and Ciaglia started off the third set strong for the Red Men. Carthage then created a three-point lead, 9-6, with a kill by Shields from the outside. New Paltz tied the score at 12-12 and then took a lead of 12-15. However, the Red Men responded and retied the score at 16-16 with a kill from Will Craft (Jr., Crete, Ill./Chicago Heights-Marian Catholic) from the middle. From there, Carthage went on to pull ahead by two, 21-19, with a kill from Shields and then took the third set, 25-20 off of a solo block by Craft. A kill by Storm from the outside opened fourth set play for the Red Men. Carthage took the early lead at 4-2 and 6-5, however, New Paltz tied the score at 7-7 and took control from there. The Hawks pulled ahead by five, 18-13, and continued to capitalize on their lead. New Paltz then pulled ahead, 23-15, and then closed out the set and the match 25-19.
 
"They are good. They are ranked where they are at, and their record is what it is for a reason," said head coach L.J. Marx, "They are a big, physical team that keeps pressure on you the entire match. Definitely caught us off guard a little bit at the beginning, then adjusted to it and started regrouping, but they just turned it to another level and we couldn't quite answer to it."
 
Shields led the Red Men with 25 kills and three digs, while teammates Storm collected nine kills and eight digs, and Craft contributed with seven kills and 10 digs. Ricky Figueroa (Fr., Newberry Park, Ca./Oaks Christian) gathered 32 assists, and Marc Hansen (So., Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn) collected 13 digs. Andy Fishman led the Hawks with 16 kills and five digs.
 
"It's been our team the whole season of: if somebody gets injured, the next man up," said Marx, "If they struggle a little bit, we throw the next guy in, which is good. They've done a nice job of regrouping, and it's not always easy for the guys to be thrown in and then taken out, but they have all done a great job about stepping up when we need them."
 
On Saturday-Sunday, March 21-22, Carthage travels to Buffalo, N.Y., to play four matches. On Saturday, March 21, the Red Men take on Medaille College at 2 p.m. (all times EDT) and Hilbert at 4 p.m. at Medaille's Sullivan Center. On Sunday, March 22, Carthage plays No. 9 New York University at 9 a.m. and D'Youville College at 12:30 p.m. at the D'Youville College Center.