The Carthage College men's volleyball team (21-6, 14-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 8 in the March 31 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, finished regular-season play with a perfect conference record after blanking conference-opponent Loras College (3-20, 1-13 MCVL), 3-0, on Wednesday, April 1, at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Winning set scores for the Red Men were 25-14, 25-18, and 25-19.
 
It was senior night at Carthage and the Red Men paid tribute to three seniors who were with the program throughout all four of their undergrad years. Matt Ciaglia (Sr., Roselle, Ill./Lake Park West), Matt Klingspohn (Sr., Glendale, Wis./Nicolet), and Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Nequa Valley) were all honored before the match and started their final regular season match together.
 
"Awesome and selfless, these were three guys with three very different stories," said head coach L.J. Marx, "Ciaglia didn't travel with us his freshman year and now he's leading the country in blocks per set, which is a testament to how hard he works. Klingspohn has been the consummate, "whatever you need coach," and Storm has put up some pretty impressive numbers over his years. So we've got some guys that have been doing really good things."
 
Carthage started off strong in the first set, opening with a 10-6 lead over Loras. Back-to-back kills from J.P. Tulacka (Jr., Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove-North) and Storm expanded the Red Men lead to 15-7. The Red Men continued to capitalize and a block from Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and Ciaglia created a 10-point lead at 21-11. A kill by Scotty Adamczyk (Jr., Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) sealed a first set win for Carthage 25-14. Storm opened the second set with a kill and then helped to expand the Red Men lead to 9-6 with another kill. Shields created a 10-point lead, 20-11, with back-to-back kills and then Carthage closed out the second set 25-18 with a block by Ciaglia.
 
In the third, the Red Men opened with a five-point lead, 16-11, from a kill followed by an ace from Ciaglia. Carthage pulled ahead to 19-14 with a kill by Shields. The Duhawks pulled within two at 21-19, but the Red Men kept their focus and finished the second set 25-19 off of a block by Shields and Ciaglia.
 
"We are healthy, which is good," continued Marx," This might be one of the first times all season where we are actually all healthy. We've got a little bit of time to regroup now, which is a good thing and a bad thing. We've got 12 days before we play another match, so we need to find a way to stay sharp for the next 12 days."
 
Shields led Carthage with 14 kills, a .391 attacking percentage and three digs, while teammate Storm had 10 kills, a .250 attacking percentage, and eight digs. Klingspohn collected 9 digs for the Red Men and Ricky Figueroa (Fr., Newberry Park, Ca./Oaks Christian) had 30 assists. Jimmy Combs led the Duhawks with seven kills.
 
"It's the first year of this conference," said Marx, "It's nice to finally be in a true Midwestern conference. This will be the first time in six years where we are not going to Pennsylvania for the conference tournament. It's fantastic! The seniors have been so much throughout these last four years, driving throughout the country. It's awesome for them to be able to finish their regular season here at home and then hopefully move on to the NCAA tournament."
 
The Red Men play host to the inaugural Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League Tournament on Friday-Saturday, April 10-11 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Carthage will take on No. 4 seed the Milwaukee School of Engineering (17-11, 8-6 MCVL) in a 7 p.m. match on Friday, April 10 with No. 2 seed the College of Mount St. Joseph (18-8, 11-3) playing No. 3 Dominican University (Ill., 15-10, 10-4) in the other semifinal contest at 4 p.m. The tournament-championship match gets underway on Saturday, April 11 at 2 p.m.