Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

Apr. 2, 2016 – The North Central College men's volleyball team closed out their inaugural season in fashion on Saturday afternoon, defeating Fontbonne University in a thrilling 3-2 finish.
 
North Central (8-16, 5-8 MCVL) came out firing in the opening set, jumping out to a 7-2 lead thanks in part to three consecutive blocks, two from Bozhidar Kolev and another from Andrew Bergstrand forced a Fontbonne timeout.
 
The Griffins (17-10, 4-9 MCVL) clawed back to take a 11-9 lead, but the Cardinals responded with a 6-1 run of their own, highlighted by kills from Anthony Kluzak, Jacob Zemba and Jake Braceros to take back the lead 15-12.  The Cardinals went on to outscore the Griffins, 10-4 the rest of the way, cruising to a 25-18 first set victory.
 
The second set was one to forget for the Cardinal offense, finishing with eight kills to 11 attack errors, good for a -.091 attack percentage.  Fontbonne only finished with seven kills in the set, but took advantage of the Cardinal unforced errors.
 
North Central trailed a majority of the third set but mounted a huge comeback after going down 23-20.  After a Griffin attack error, a service ace off the hand of Braceros, followed by two straight kills from Kyle Nilsen two points later knotted the score 24-24.
 
After a Fontbonne kill gave the visitors set point, a Griffin ball handling error, followed by a block from Nilsen and Kluzak turned the tables to give the Cardinals set point 26-24. 
 
Fontbonne managed to knot the score yet again on a kill from Anthony Pitaro, but the Cardinal attack was too much to handle as North Central went to their outside weapons in Zemba and Braceros for the set's final two kills, winning the set 28-26 to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Despite outhitting the Griffins in set number four, the five service errors proved to be the difference in the set as North Central never led.  The Cardinals finished with 16 kills to just three errors in the set and came back from a 16-12 deficit to tie the score at 20, but just could not get over the hump, eventually falling 25-22.
 
The Cardinals were not to be outdone however, as three straight kills from Bergstrand, Raymond Kraus and Braceros gave North Central an early 5-2 lead and it was all North Central from there, opening up a 12-7 lead late and would go on to win the final set 15-10.
 
Braceros led the Cardinal attack with 20 kills, one short of his career high set in the season opener, while Zemba finished with a career-best 17 kills and a team-high 12 digs.  Kraus led all players with a career-high 54 assists, becoming the first player in program history to reach the 50 assist plateau.
 
T.J. Vorva and Brendon Schwartze each finished with double-digit kills for Fontbonne with 12 and 10, respectively, while Jacob Lendy handed out a team-high 39 assists.
 
North Central finished their inaugural season with an overall record of 8-16, going 5-8 in MCVL play.