KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men put together their best match of the season on Saturday, February 4, as the men's volleyball team swept the Lakeland University Muskies at Tarble Arena, 3-0.
 
The win moves the #7 Red Men to 4-1 on the year and 3-0 in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League, while the Muskies fall to 2-4 and 0-2 in the MCVL.
 
"It was a good win today," stated a happy L.J. Marx following the sweep.  "We have been working on a lot of specific components as far as running our offense more efficiently and improved the defensive side of our game.  I thought Lakeland did a great job challenging our defense and not giving us the opportunity to block balls, which is something we have been very good at over the past few years… It was nice to see our offense get going and actually terminate a lot of balls in transition.  So it was a nice 'building' win."
 
As a team the Red Men hit .435 on the day, taking the match 25-21, 25-20, 25-15.  After opening hitting .290 in the first set, the Red Men hit better each of the next two sets with a .394 in the second and a remarkable .714 in the third courtesy of 17 kills on 21 attacks and just a pair of errors.
 
Offensively, Kai Cromwell and Marc Hansen led the Red Men with 12 kills apiece, while Zach Lillig had the best hitting percentage for Carthage at .727 with nine kills.  Matt Reinsel led the Red Men with 24 of Carthage's 41 assists before leaving the match in the third set with an apparent ankle injury.  Ricky Figueroa came in and added 14 assists to closeout the match.
 
Carthage, which was averaging just over seven digs per set coming into the match, tallied 34 digs in the three setter, led by Cromwell with eight, Hansen with seven and Evan Walsh with six.
 
The head coach noted, "We got one guy back today (Griffin Shields) but lost another (Matt Reinsel).  It's the revolving door of the season.  It is something that we are used to and something we talk to our guys everyday about as far as it's the next man up.  Nothing changes.  We trust each other that we can play at a high level and we proved that again today."
 
Next for Carthage, the Red Men will head north to Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin for a single match next weekend at Marian University.  First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. next Friday.