PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men completed the regular season sweep of Lakeland University on Saturday with an exciting five set thriller to down the Muskie, 3-2, at Lakeland's Woltzen Gymnasium.
 
The win moves the #8 Red Men to 7-0 in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League and 8-1 on the season.  The loss sends Lakeland to 7-6 and 4-3 in the MCVL.
 
The two teams exchanged set wins throughout the match to Carthage's advantage as the Red Men won the first 25-23, dropped the second 23-25, took the third 25-16, fell in the fourth 25-20 and finally took the match in a thrilling fifth thath Carthage faced a Lakeland match-point at 14-13 before battling back to win, 19-17.
 
Neither team hit particularly well with the Red Men holding a .146 to .110 edge despite tallying 35 total attack errors.
 
Marc Hansen led the Red Men with 12 kills followed by middles Zach Lillig and Max Bongratz with 11 each.  Matt Reinsel raised his season-high for assists with 51 on the night. 
 
Defensively, Cody Bolan set a new Carthage College record with 34 digs on the night in the win, overtaking Ryan Baumgartner's previous record of 30 against UC-Santa Cruz back in 2007.
 
Bongratz was also a force at the net on the defensive side, as he had a say in six of the Red Men's eight total blocks.
 
Lakeland's Matt Stolz led all hitters with 14 kills in the match.
 
On the docket next for the Red Men, Carthage will play host to divisional rival the Milwaukee School of Engineering in a battle of undefeated MCVL West teams on Wednesday, March 1 at 7:00 p.m.