KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's volleyball team opened their season on Saturday, January 14th with a sweep of Clarke University at Tarble Arena, 3-0.
 
The win gives Carthage, who is ranked #4 in the AVCA Top-15 poll, a 1-0 start to the season, while Clarke falls to 0-1 in 2017.
 
"Always nice to open the season with a win against good competition," said head coach LJ Marx following the win.  "We did a number of things well and there is room for improvement in certain areas.  The way the guys closed the match out after giving up a late lead in the third was nice to see but it is something we would prefer not to have to deal with."
 
Outside hitter Marc Hansen paced the way for the Red Men with a team-high ten kills on the day as he hit .625.  Zach Lillig was second on the team Saturday with eight kills and led the Red Men, hitting .636.  Max Bongratz joined the hitting party as well with three kills from the middle on five attempts for a .600 hitting percentage.
 
2016 AVCA Rookie of the Year Matt Reinsel led Carthage with 26 assists, while libero Cody Bolan picked up a match-high eight digs.
 
After a back-and-forth first set, Carthage grabbed control late when leading 18-17 by going on a 3-0 run to go up 21-17 behind the serve of Bongratz.  Clarke eventually erased the lead to one once again to tie it at 22-22, but out of a LJ Marx timeout the Red Men closed out the set with another 3-0 run to take the first game, 25-22.
 
The second set saw less drama despite the Red Men falling behind early, 3-1.  After tying the second set at 3-3 and taking a 4-3 lead the Red Men never trailed the rest of the set behind a .407 hitting percentage to take a 2-0 lead with a 25-19 win.
 
It looked as though Carthage was on their way to a sweep in the third as the Red Men found themselves ahead of the Crusaders 20-16 late in the set.  However Clarke battled back behind the play of Isaiah Acfalle, who finished with a match-high 13 kills.  Acfalle led Clarke back to eventually take a 22-21 lead in the third before the Red Men regained their composure and finished the sweep on a 4-1 run to take the match which ended on Kai Cromwell's fourth ace of the day.
 
The Red Men finished hitting .388 as a team to Clarke's .264, with Carthage only self-inflicting seven attack errors to the Crusaders' 17.  The service game also went in favor of Carthage as Cromwell's aforementioned four aces were more than Clarke's entire team and the Crusaders recorded 20 service errors to the Red Men's ten.
 
Carthage returns to action a week from now, when the Red Men play host to New York University on Saturday, January 21st.  First serve from Tarble is set for 3:00 p.m.