SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The Carthage College Red Men completed their opening weekend in southwest Ohio on Saturday with a pair of sweeps over Lancaster Bible College and Marymount University.
The pair of wins send the #3 Red Men to 3-0 on the season, while Lancaster Bible finishes the weekend 1-2 and Marymount finishes up 1-3.
"Great way to start the season," said head coach LJ Marx. "Proud of the way the team responded to schedule changes due to weather and stuck together and played some really high-quality volleyball as the weekend progressed."
#3 Carthage 3, Lancaster Bible 0
The Red Men opened the day with their first sweep of the day, hitting .258 to the Chargers .137. A day after committing 19 service errors in the season opener, the Red Men cleaned up their service game, committing just nine from the backline, while cracking off four aces, three of which came from
Braeden Waumans.
Matt Slivinski led the Red Men with 12 kills and a .524 attack in the win, while
Matt Reinsel dished out 35 assists. Defensively, the Red Men were led by
Kai Cromwell and Slivinski with eight digs each and
Parker Connolly had a match-high four blocks.
#3 Carthage 3, #12 Marymount 0
Carthage turned in a dominant performance in their weekend finale, as the Red Men topped #12 Marymount in their first AVCA Top-15 showdown. Carthage played a very clean match, hitting .276 in the win with 25 kills and just nine errors, while Marymount finished with 24 errors and a .059 attack.
With so many errors committed by the Saints, the Red Men never really shined in the stats as Slivinski once again led Carthage with nine kills. Reinsel led Carthage with 17 assists and ten digs. Waumans set another career-high with five of the Red Men's eight aces and
Evan Walsh and
Parker Connolly each had four blocks. Waumans finished with 12 service aces over the three-match span.
Following the tournament, sophomore outside hitter
Matt Slivinski was named to the 2019 Jim Coleman Memorial Invitational All-Classic Team. Slivinski finished the weekend with a .421 attack, which included a pair of .500 hitting games and registered 32 kills.
Carthage will return to Tarble Arena for their home opener on Wednesday, January 23rd against Aurora University at 7:00 p.m.
