The Carthage College men's volleyball team (22-6, 14-0 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League), ranked No. 8 in the April 7 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, defeated No. 13 the Milwaukee School of Engineering (17-12, 8-6 MCVL), 3-0, in the semifinals of the MCVL conference tournament on Friday, April 10, at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Winning set scores for the Red Men were 25-23, 25-21, and 25-17.
 
Earlier, No. 12 the College of Mount St. Joseph (19-8, 11-3 MCVL) defeated No. 15 Dominican University (Ill., 15-11, 10-4 MCVL), 3-2, to advance to the championship round. Winning set scores for the Lions were 25-19, 26-28, 23-25, 25-18, and 15-9.
 
Carthage started off slow in the first set opening with a three-point lead, 6-3, off of a kill by J.P. Tulacka (Jr., Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove-North) from the middle followed by a Griffin Shields (So., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) service ace. The Red Men pulled ahead to 10-7, but the Raiders fought back to tie the game at 10-10 and then create leads of 10-12 and 12-15. Carthage battled to tie the game at 16-16 off of a kill by Shields, however, MSOE continued to control the pace of the set and created a three-point lead at 16-19. The Red Men pulled within one, 20-21, off of a kill by Matt Ciaglia (Sr., Roselle, Ill./Lake Park West) from the middle, and then tied the game at 22-22 with a block by Shields and Tulacka. The set remained tied at 23-23, and then a kill by Shields followed by a Raider attack error sealed a first set victory for Carthage.
 
In the second, Ciaglia opened play with a block from the middle. The Red Men then took a nine-point lead at 13-4 off of back-to-back kills from Tulacka and Jon Storm (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley). A kill by Scotty Adamczyk (Jr., Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) off of an MSOE serve return then created another nine-point lead for Carthage at 18-9. The Raiders got on a run and pulled within four-points of the Red Men, 19-15, however, Carthage quickly responded to the gain and took a five-point lead at 21-16 off of back-to-back kills from Adamczyk and Tulacka. A kill by Shields then closed out the second set for the Red Men 25-21. Shields then opened the third set with a kill and helped the Red Men to pull ahead by eight, 11-3, with back-to-back kills after kills from Adamczyk and Tulacka. Kills by Storm from the right side then created leads of 15-7 and 17-10.  From here Carthage continued to capitalize on their lead and pulled ahead 22-14 with a kill by Shields. The Red Men then took the set and the match 25-17.
 
"It started slow," said head coach L.J. Marx, "we weren't exactly on top of things during warm-ups, and so it didn't surprise me that we started kind of slow. Once we worked our way through that, we got a lot better. MSOE gave us everything we could handle in that first game, they lost their momentum a little bit and then we started playing very well."
 
Shields led Carthage with 14 kills, five digs, and a .346 attacking percentage. Storm contributed with 11 kills and seven digs, while teammate Ricky Figueroa (Fr., Newberry Park, Ca./Oaks Christian) collected 38 assists in the victory over MSOE. Nick Manning led the Raiders with 12 kills and four digs.
 
"It's going to be a battle," continued Marx, "they [Mount St. Joseph] played very well today in their first match, and obviously it was a tough five game match for them. They got pushed to their limits and held on strong, so we are going to have to do a little better than we did today, tomorrow. There's nothing that we can't do or can't adjust to so we are just going to have to play at a higher level."
 
The Red Men will take on Mount St. Joseph on Saturday, April 11, in the championship match, beginning  at 2 p.m.