KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's volleyball team kept their perfect season going on Saturday at Tarble, as the #4 Red Men picked up a pair of sweeps in the Carthage College Triangular, defeating the #3 University of California-Santa Cruz and Concordia University Wisconsin.
 
The pair of wins moves the Red Men to 7-0 in 2018, while the Banana Slugs go to 10-2 with a split and the Falcons fall to 0-8 in their first season.
 
"Solid performances by our guys today," said a pleased LJ Marx following the wins.  "If you told me before our first match today against Santa Cruz that we were going to hit .167 and win, I don't know if I would have believed you.  But our guys kept battling and earned a nice win over a very good team.  Winning early allowed us to our everyday guys some rest and allowed us to dip deep into the bench and those guys played very well."
 
#4 Carthage 3, #3 UC-Santa Cruz 0 [25-20, 25-20, 25-19]
In the top-five matchup that started the day, Carthage controlled the serve-receive and did not allow the Banana Slugs to record a single ace, while the Red Men cracked six of their own, including three from Evan Walsh in the win.  Walsh was also the only player in the match with ten-or-more kills, as the junior opposite recorded 12 kills and hit .350.
 
Defensively, Tony Allen, who returned from illness after missing Wednesday at Benedictine University, led the Red Men in digs with eight and was trailed closely by Braeden Waumans with seven. 
 
Despite hitting just .168 in the match, the Red Men won the battle at the net and holding Santa Cruz to .000 in the match.  Along with topping the Banana Slugs in kills, 29-28, the Red Men blocked an extra pair of shots to earn the 9-7 edge in blocks.  Leading the block for Carthage was Max Bongratz with five and Mason Moore with four.
 
Matt Reinsel had 27 of the Red Men's 28 assists in the win.
 
#4 Carthage 3, Concordia 0 [25-10, 25-15, 25-8]
In the second match of the day, the Red Men rested a number of their starters and LJ Marx used his entire bench in the second win of the day.  Carthage hit .284 in the win to Concordia's -.051 as the Red Men dominated the final match of the day against the first-year program.
 
Kai Cromwell led Carthage with eight kills followed by Eric Winter and Kevin Landgraf with five each, and Parker Connolly and Mason Moore with four each.  Jacob Allard relieved Matt Reinsel in the second match of the day and turned in 26 assists at setter.
 
For the second time in three matches the Red Men dominated from the service line with aces.  After hitting for 19 aces in the win over #9 Benedictine on Wednesday, Carthage matched their season-high with 19 in the three set win.  Cromwell, who had seven aces on the season, matched that number with a career-high seven in the win.  Mason Moore also set a new career-high with six aces.
 
In addition to Landgraf, Dan Dobrowolski, Blake Arnold and Connor Lilly each made their 2018 debut for the Red Men.
 
Carthage will return to action on Friday, February 2nd when Carthage heads to Plymouth, Wisconsin for a showdown with the Muskies of Lakeland University.  First serve is set next Friday at 7:00 p.m.