NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The #2 Carthage College men's volleyball team dropped their first match of the season in their Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League opener to North Central College, 3-1 [25-20, 25-17, 13-25, 27-25].
 
The loss drops the Red Men to 13-1 on the season and to 0-1 in the MCVL, while North Central moves to 8-6 and 1-0 in the conference.
 
"Today was the culmination of everything which we have been talking about for the past couple weeks, saying we must get better," said head coach LJ Marx following the loss.  "All the credit to North Central tonight, they came out and dictated the pace of the match.  What we showed in set three and most of set four is what we needed earlier in the match and we may have earned a different result.  Now we have to get back up for a pair of conference matches this weekend before our trip out east.
 
The Red Men struggled out of the gate, hitting just .125 and .133 in the opening two sets, committing 15 total attack errors, while North Central committed just five errors in the first two sets and hit .433 and .263 respectively to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
 
The Red Men found their rhythm in the third set, as they hit .375 with just one error to the Cardinals' -.108 with 11 errors to earn the first win of the match and force a fourth set.
 
In the fourth set, after a back-and-fourth affair, the Red Men were looking to force a fifth set up 24-22, but three straight points from North Central set the Cardinals up for match point.  Carthage drew back to even at 25-25 but two straight point from North Central ended the match.
 
Evan Walsh and Matt Slivinski led the Red Men with 16 and 13 kills respectively, while Matt Reinsel led Carthage in assists and digs with 40 and 13.  Both were match-highs.
 
The Red Men will look to bounce back quickly as a pair of MCVL matches come to Tarble Arena this weekend.  Carthage will open with Adrian College on Friday at 7:00 p.m. followed by Olivet College, Saturday at 1:00 p.m.