SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The Carthage College men's volleyball team opened their three-game weekend set with a pair of three-set sweeps on Friday at the Jim Coleman Invitational, hosted by Wittenberg University.
 
The two wins Friday moves, the #9 Red Men to 3-0 on the season, while Virginia Southern University fell to 1-1 on the day and Penn State-Behrend concluded the first two games of their season at 1-1 as well.
 
"Overall a good day for us," said head coach LJ Marx.  "We came out flat in the first set of both matches but rebounded nicely to take both in three.  Saw some really good things and a number of things we still need to work on.  Our serve-receive really helped us recover from bad first sets to control the matches after that."
 
#9 Carthage 3, Southern Virginia 0
It took the Red Men 30 points into the match before Carthage found their rhythm in the first set and eventual took the exciting opener 25-23.  Following that the Red Men controlled the serve-receive and forced the Knights out of their rhythm the rest of the way taking the second set, 25-20, and the third, 25-21, for the sweep.
 
Evan Walsh led the Red Men with eight kills on 22 attempts followed by Zach Lillig and Braeden Waumans each with five kills in the win.  Walsh recorded three aces and Waumans a pair of to lead the Red Men, as Carthage tallied eight total in the win.
 
#9 Carthage 3, Penn State-Behrend 0
Carthage overcame 15 combined attack and service errors and a .091 hitting percentage in the first set to open their second sweep of the day, taking the match 25-22, 25-15, 25-17.  For the match the Red Men tallied 41 kills to the Lions' 20 and outhit Behrend .250-.052.
 
With L.J. Marx working deep into his bench in the win, Matt Reinsel led the team with 37 assists as a majority went to freshman outside hitter Kelvin Rivera, whom led the Red Men with 12 kills on 20 attempts for a .450 attack percentage. 
 
Tony Allen led Carthage on the defensive side, following up a ten dig performance against SVU, with a career-high 11 digs against the Lions.
 
Jacob Allard, Matt Slivinski, Bryce Thomas, Parker Connolly and Eric Winter all saw their first action of the season in the win, with Slivinski making the first start of his career.
 
The Red Men will return to action at day two of the Jim Coleman Invitational on Saturday, as Carthage will face #6 Juniata College in a nationally ranked matchup at 12:00 p.m. ET.