Contact: Emily Zadny, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302
(Written by Allysson Schellhase, Student Sports Information Assistant)
Box Score
Mar. 2, 2018 – Coming off a thrilling win against second-ranked Carthage College on Wednesday, the North Central College men's volleyball team extended its winning streak to five games by defeating Midwest College Volleyball League (MCVL) opponent Olivet College (4-5, 0-3 MCVL), 3-0 on Friday night at Gregory Arena.
North Central started the match with its core starters and the Cardinal offense started to flow with kills from outside hitter Nick Lilley and middle hitter Brendan Crawford, while the Comet's offense collected five attacking errors to put North Central in the lead by six. The Cardinals widened the gap with three kills from outside hitter Jake Braceros and two services aces from opposite hitter Jason Eslinger and setter Michael Trunzo to make the score 20-9. North Central quickly gathered four kills from Braceros and Crawford and topped off the set with another service ace from Eslinger to end the set 25-12.
Outside hitter Bozhidar Kolev started off the second set with two service aces and a kill to contribute to a 10-6 lead for the Cardinals. Middle hitter Casey Hiller followed in Kolev's footsteps by accumulating two kills and a service ace while Olivet's offense continued to struggle with two more attacking errors to put them behind the Cardinals by ten points. A kill from Trunzo gave him the ball to go on a three-point run at the end of the set which resulted in a triple block from Lilley, Hiller and Kolev and a kill from Lilley to close out the second set 25-13 in favor of the Cardinals.
The third set kicked off in similar fashion with three kills from Braceros but two Cardinal service errors and three Comet kills put North Central barely in the lead with a 10-7 advantage. The Cardinals stayed big at the net to maintain the lead with another block from Lilley and Hiller plus a pair of kills from Crawford to make the score 17-14. Olivet attempted to catch up to North Central with four kills but each kill was answered back from the Cardinals' offense. Eslinger served up another ace and middle hitter Justin Curtis gained another kill off the hands of Trunzo to finish the set 25-19, resulting in a 3-0 Cardinal win.
The Cardinals had a match high hitting percentage in the third set at .652. North Central's offense showed pristine precision with Crawford, Hiller, Braceros and opposite hitter Jacob Zemba all having .833, .600, .571 and .667 hitting percentages, respectively. The team had a match-high eight service aces, paced by Eslinger with three.
North Central (9-6, 2-0 MCVL) continues MCVL match play at Gregory Arena on Saturday, Mar. 2, hosting Adrian College at 12 p.m. before playing non-conference opponent Maranatha Baptist University at 5 p.m. A link for live in-match statistics can be found HERE.
