Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

AURORA, Ill. (Feb. 8, 2018) - Falling victim to a series of well-timed scoring rallies, the North Central College men's volleyball team dropped to 4-5 on the season with a 3-0 loss at Aurora University Thursday evening.

The Cardinals took advantage of four Aurora attacking errors to pull in front by an 8-3 count in the opening set, and led, 14-12, before the Spartans (5-1) scored five of the next six points to inch in front, 17-15. The hosts trailed, 24-23, before getting two straight kills from Tim Breiter and taking advantage of an attacking error to close out a 26-24 first-set win.

North Central trailed early in the second set before battling back to knot the score at 8-8, and the score was tied four times before Aurora scored four straight points, two of which came on service aces by Tyler Turner, and moved ahead, 18-14. The Spartans held on to secure a 25-22 victory and take a two-set lead.

Leading, 7-6, in the third set, the Cardinals yielded four straight Aurora points and the Spartans never trailed again, completing the victory with a 25-23 win.

Brendan Crawford, Bozhidar Kolev and Nick Lilley shared North Central's team lead with seven kills each, while Michael Trunzo recorded 18 assists and Samuel Kharasch finished with nine digs. Breiter paced the Spartans with 12 kills.

North Central participates in the CCIW Triangular on Saturday at Carthage College's Tarble Arena, taking on third-ranked Carthage at noon and Augustana College at 2:00 p.m.