THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The No. 5 Carthage College men's volleyball team picked up their third win of the season with a 3-0 victory over California Lutheran Friday night at the Soiland Rec. Center.
The Red Men (3-1) started with a 7-5 lead over The Kingsmen (5-4) with a kill from Bryce Thomas in set one. California Lutheran rallied to take control of the set at 15-12 before Carthage tied it at 20 with a service ace from Thomas. The Red Men went on a 5-2 run to take a one-set lead 25-22.
It was a back-and-forth set two to start with the score knotted at 13. A 5-1 run for the Kingsmen pushed the score to 18-14 in favor California Lutheran. The Red Men responded tying the set at 19 and put together a 7-4 run to give Carthage a two-set lead 26-24.
In the third set, the Red Men went up 11-5 until the Kingsmen went on a 6-2 run shrinking the deficit to two. Later in the third, a block by Matt Slivinksi and Jacob Allard made the score 20-17 in favor of Carthage. California Lutheran got within one but a kill from Braeden Waumans sealed the Red Men victory 25-23.
Carthage stays in California playing UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, February 1 beginning at 3:30 p.m.
"We knew this match was going to be a battle of styles tonight and I thought we did a very nice job at the end of sets to dictate play. Cal Lu played great defense and brought the ball back to our side, we just had to continue to stay aggressive. I was really proud of our bench tonight, Jacob Allard, Conner Lilly and Blake Arnold all contributed from their roles. It takes contributions from all over the roster to win tough matches and we showed how deep this team was tonight."
