MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The No. 5 Carthage College men's volleyball team fell in close competition to MSOE 3-2 in non-conference action on Wednesday at the Kern Center.
The Red Men (2-1) jumped out to a 10-5 lead to start over the Raiders (2-0). A service ace from Matt Slivinski pushed the Carthage advantage to 13-9 before taking the set 25-13. It was a back-and-forth effort to begin the second with the score tied at 11. Later in the set, a kill from Slivinski made it 18-15 before taking a two-set lead with a kill from Peyton Wieter. In the third, the Red Men again began with a 15-8 margin until the Raiders rallied with a 10-3 run to tie the set at 18. MSOE took the set by a score of 25-22.
Each team carried the momentum over into the fourth with Carthage taking a 13-9 advantage until the Raiders battled back to tie the set at 13. A service ace from Braeden Waumans pushed the lead to 18-15 forcing an MSOE timeout. Carthage made it 20-16 with a kill from Slivinski, however another Raiders rally tied the set at 22. The thrilling set ended in favor of MSOE with back-to-back kills 30-28.
The Raiders took a 7-4 margin to begin the fifth set until Carthage rattled off three straight points to tie it at seven. Both teams traded point for point until a Raiders service error switched the score to 20-19 giving Carthage the lead. MSOE scored the final three points to take the 3-2 victory 22-20.
The Red Men head out to California Lutheran on Friday, January 31 beginning at 9:30 p.m. CST.
"All the credit to MSOE after an absolute battle of a match. When you are going back and forth with your best players taking swings it makes for some fun volleyball to be a part of.
It's funny how volleyball can end up coming down to the serve and pass game no matter if you are playing middle school or pro volleyball. We were really good from those areas in one and two, while MSOE did a fantastic job from the service line in 3-5. I am proud of how hard we worked throughout the match. Overall I think we just were not able to take advantage of certain opportunities put in front of us in four and five defensively, while MSOE was able to finish."
