KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men saw their season come to an end Saturday night in front a great home crowd, falling in the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship Quarterfinals to Dominican University, 3-1.
 
For the Red Men, the crushing loss ends their season as the number-two team in the nation at 24-2, while the Stars advance to next weekend's national semifinals hosted by Carthage College at 26-7.
 
The Red Men opened with a very strong first set to jump out to a 1-0 lead, taking the first set, 25-14.  The Red Men hit .500 in the set to the Stars' -.111 with middles Zach Lillig and Parker Connolly hitting .750 and 1.000 respectively and combining for five of the Red Men's five kills.   Carthage took full advantage of the hitting errors of the Stars, with Dominican committing ten attack errors to give the Red Men the set.
 
Unfortunately, it was all Stars for the next three sets.  Dominican came out and set the tone from the service line, despite committing 22 total service errors, and were more aggressive at the net to take the sets.  The Red Men's hitting sank-off after the solid first set, hitting just .160 and .148 in the second and third sets respectively, before rebounding with a .480 in the fourth, but still getting edged out for the defeat. 
 
Dominican's turnaround was a different story.  The Stars settled in and after the ten attack errors in the first set and the dreadful hitting percentage.  Dominican closed the match hitting .481, .297 and .538 in sets two through four respectively to secure their berth in the national semifinals.
 
For the Red Men, Kelvin Rivera led Carthage with 15 kills and Lillig had the strongest day attacking with nine kills and no errors on 14 attempts for a .643 hitting percentage.  Matt Reinsel finished with 37 assists and ten digs, while Parker Connolly led the Red Men with five blocks.
 
Dominican advances to return to Carthage next weekend as they join Springfield College, Vassar College and the Stevens Institute of Technology.