KENOSHA, WIS.—The #1 Carthage College men's volleyball team welcomed Loras College to Tarble Arena for a Saturday-afternoon affair. The Duhawks, who entered Saturday fresh-off an emotional 3-0 sweep over #12 North Central on Friday, couldn't seal the deal with a 23-20 lead in set three as Carthage answered with a 6-1 run en route to a 26-24 win in the frame, and 3-0 match sweep.
 
"Really exciting match, especially the finish," said Red Men head volleyball coach L.J. Marx. "Sets one and two were close, we made a few plays at that 15-20 mark and built ourselves a three-point lead, which helped us manage to hang on. In the third set, I think we were down pretty much the entire time until the end. I think it's a sign of the guy's confidence in themselves and the trust they have in each other to go out there and compete and go after a win rather than being afraid to lose. Loras is a really quality team that I'm sure we're going to see in a couple weeks at the conference tournament."
 
Matt Reinsel came through with a 40-assist performance, and five blocks. He fed to Evan Walsh, who paced Carthage with 14 kills along with a .407 hitting percentage. Matt Slivinski's .417 hitting mark included 12 kills, while Eric Winter and Braeden Waumans each chipped in seven kills. Blake Arnold commanded Carthage's defense with a game-high 11 digs, while Winter controlled the net with a game-high six blocks.
 
Carthage hit .340 as a team, and held the Duhawks to a .220 figure. Loras's Grant Ooms led all players with 18 kills, while teammate Mihajlo Gomez wasn't far behind with 16.
 
The Red Men, who now own a two-game cushion in first place with three regular season MCVL games left, push their win streak to 12 and improve to 19-1, 6-0 MCVL, while Loras falls to 18-5, 4-2 MCVL.
 
Red Men 3, Loras 0
 
The Duhawks didn't surrender a lead in set one until their 4-3 cushion, where Carthage responded with a 5-0 run en route to an 8-4 lead. Loras fired back with a 5-1 run to tie the game 9-9 before Carthage took the lead for good. Five different Red Men contributed kills from that point through the remainder of the set, where they iced a 25-22 win.
 
The Red Men, who trailed as late as 20-18 in set two, concluded the frame with a 7-2 run en route to a 25-22 win. Set three proved to be the same story as Carthage found themselves in a 23-20 hole before five Loras errors from that point forward engineered a 6-1 run that secured the Red Men a 26-24 win.
 
Carthage will travel to Olivet College on Friday, March 29 for a 7:00 p.m. game time.