RIVER FOREST, Ill. — The No. 10 Carthage College men's volleyball team came up short falling to No. 12 Dominican (Ill.) 3-2 in non-conference action on Wednesday at Igini Sports Forum. 

The Red Men (5-3) offense came out strong 10-4 lead to begin set one but the Stars (5-0) tied the set at 13 with a 9-3 run. Each team traded point for point until a quick 4-0 run switched the score to 22-16 in favor of Carthage. The Stars got as close as five but the Red Men took the first set 25-24 with a kill from Matt Slivinski. 

It was another back-and-forth effort to start the second with the score tied at 13. Later in the set, back-to-back kills from Bryce Thomas and Slivinski gave Carthage a 19-18 advantage. Neither team could gain the momentum as a Stars service error tied it at 22 however, Dominican (Ill.) took the set 25-23. 

The Stars started with a 14-11 margin in the third until a fast 4-1 run for Carthage shrank the Dominican (Ill.) lead to 15-14. A kill from Parker Connolly and a Stars attack error tied it at 20. The Red Men again got within one with a Dominican (Ill.) attack error, but the Stars won the set 25-22. 

In the fourth set, Carthage sprang out to a 7-5 margin and later put together a 7-4 run to push the margin to 14-9 with back-to-back kills from Connolly and Slivinski. The Red Men outscored Dominican (Ill.) 11-8 to force a fifth set. 

Carthage used their momentum from the fourth to leap out to a 9-7 lead in the fifth, but the Stars responded with four unanswered points putting the home team up 11-9. Dominican (Ill.) closed out the set with a 5-1 run to come away with the victory. 

Next up, the Red Men face Concordia (Wis.) on the road on Saturday, February 15 beginning at 10 a.m. 

Head Coach JW Kieckhefer

"I am proud of this group for responding in the 4th set to some adversity. We were able to find our style of play again and it really paid off. Blake Arnold did a fantastic job off the bench making some great digs and lead the group.
 
When you miss as many serves as we did tonight it is tough to win matches. We need to figure that out to find success in the second half of the season. Credit to Dominican in the fifth set for serving aggressively and taking us out of system.
 
Another battle on the road. We need to take these lessons and learn from them. That's how we can turn the difficulty of this schedule into a significant advantage." 

Quick Facts

• Three different Red Men registered double-digit kills: Matt Slivinski (16), Bryce Thomas (13) and Zach Bulthuis (11). 
• Bulthuis added six blocks while hitting .647 in the match off 17 attacks. 
• Jacob Allard registered 50 assists marking the third time this season he has collected 30 or more assists. 

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