DUBUQUE, Iowa – The Carthage College Red Men returned to action for the first time in nearly two weeks to win a nail-biter over the Duhawks of Loras College in five sets, 3-2 [23-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 15-13].
The win moves the #3 Red Men to 16-1 and to 3-1 in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League, while the Duhawks fall to 8-9 and 1-3 in the league.
"Sloppy game all around but happy to leave here with a win," said head coach LJ Marx following the win. "After a long break like we had, we expect a little rust, but not executing on fundamentals is inexcusable. We need to continue to work to get better and back to the form we were in earlier in the year. Hopefully we can take that first step tomorrow at Augustana in another must-win match."
Carthage responded to falling behind multiple times in the match with clutch wins to draw the match even at 1-1 and then 2-2 to force the decisive fifth set. In the fifth, the head coach LJ Marx turned to freshmen
Eric Winter and
Parker Connolly at the middle block position and it paid off. The Red Men hit .333 in the fifth and pulled off the comeback for the two-point fifth set win, 15-13.
For match, the Red Men hit .221 to Loras' .187, including .310 to .235 and .333 to .238 hitting advantages in the fourth and fifth set respectively to win the match. Loras finished the match winning most of the statistical battles, with 59 kills to the Red Men's 52, 6 aces to 5, 57 assists to 50 and 57 digs to 53. However the Red Men committed eight fewer attack errors and took advantage of Loras' 24 service errors to win the match.
Matt Reinsel had a strong night in the win, as the Red Men captain dished out 47 assists in the five setter, which is the third most for the junior setter on the season.
Evan Walsh led the Red Men offensively with a career-high 17 kills and hit .262 in the win. Walsh also added a match-high three aces to help the Red Men's cause.
Defensively,
Tony Allen came up huge late with clutch dig after clutch dig, on his way to a career-high as well with 15.
Matt Slivinski, whom led the Red Men in blocks with four, including Carthage lone solo block, was second on the team with 11 digs and was the only other player with double digit kills with 12.
Kai Cromwell rounded out the defensive effort for Carthage with ten digs.
The Red Men will return to action on Saturday with a quick turnaround before playing Augustana College in Rock Island. First serve Saturday is set for 1:00 p.m.
