MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men stayed undefeated in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League on Wednesday night with a win in a nationally ranked matchup, defeating the Milwaukee School of Engineering in four sets, 3-1.
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The highly anticipated rematch comes less than a month after the initial meeting this season when the Raiders forced the match at Tarble to five sets before Carthage eventually prevailed.
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The #7 Red Men improve to 17-1 on the season and 15-0 in the MCVL, while the #14 Raiders fall to 15-3 and 11-2 in the MCVL.
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The win also secures a spot for the Red Men in the 2017 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League Tournament set for April 14
th and 15
th at a location yet to be determined.
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The senior duo of
Griffin Shields and
Marc Hansen led the Red Men with 16 and 14 kills respectively. Middles
Zach Lillig and
Max Bongratz each had strong nights as well with Lillig leading the Red Men in hitting with a .615 hitting percentage with eight kills on 13 attempts and no errors, while Bongratz had seven kills on 11 attempts for a .455 hitting performance.Â
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Matt Reinsel tied for the match-high with 42 assists in the win and rattled off one of the Red Men's four aces, which came in the fourth set during an 8-0 run to open the final set.
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As a team, the Red Men hit .272 for the match with strong first and second set hitting performances, hitting .500 and .478 respectively.Â
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Reinsel also led all players with 14 digs in the match, narrowly edging out libero
Cody Bolan with 13. As a team, the Red Men totaled 50 digs compared to just 35 for the Raiders.
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Carthage also owned the net on the defensive side as well with 11 total blocks, seven of which were solo. Shields and Bongratz led the Red Men with four blocks apiece.
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The Red Men return to action on Saturday back at Tarble Arena with another nationally ranked matchup, as #7 Carthage will host #3 Steven Institute of Technology at 3:00 p.m. It will be the second match of the day, as Stevens will face Wittenberg at Tarble at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday as well.