NAPERVILLE, Ill. — The No. 7 Carthage College men's volleyball handed No. 11 North Central (Ill.) their first loss of the season with a 3-0 win in the Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) action Wednesday night at Gregory Arena.
North Central (Ill.) (3-1, 1-1 CCIW) went up 12-8 to start. Carthage (6-0, 3-0 CCIW) pulled within one with a kill from Matt Slivinski making it 18-17. Two plays later, back-to-back Cardinals attack errors tied the set at 20. The Firebirds battled back to take the set with back-to-back kills from Slivinski 25-23.
Carthage started the second up 10-5 with a kill from Zach Bulthuis. A Cardinals attack error gave the Firebirds a five-point advantage at 12-7. Later in the set, Slivinski connected on a kill which put Carthage up 17-12. North Central (Ill.) would get within three until Slivinski once again recorded back-to-back kills to take a two-set lead 25-21.
It was a close third set to begin with the score tied at 10. A Cardinals kill gave the home team a two-point lead however, the Firebirds battled back to tie it at 14 and a kill from Parker Connolly flipped the score to 15-14. Carthage ended the set with a 10-3 run to win the match 25-17.
Next up, the Firebirds stay on the road playing Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday, March 3 at 7 p.m.
"Such a great win by this team! We had some incredible plays from guys off the bench today to win us that match. Conner Lilly made some incredible digs in set one to seal a comeback and Daniel Dyner made a great blocking move late in set three to give us a spark.
Good teams make adjustments and make defensive plays. I'm just really proud of how we made adjustments throughout the match and our defensive ability. We dug so many balls tonight that we were able to turn into points and that changed the match in our favor."
Quick Facts
- Matt Slivinski led Carthage in kills with a match-high 18 marking the third game he has registered 12 or more kills in a match.
- Gene McNulty had 38 assists while McNulty, Slivinski and Zach Bulthuis tallied one ace apiece.
- The Firebird offense hit .429 in set two and finished the match with a .356 hitting-percentage with 44 kills off 90 total attacks and 12 errors.
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