Contact: Emily Zadny, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302
(Written by Allysson Schellhase, Student Sports Information Assistant)
Box Score vs. Adrian
Box Score vs. Maranatha Baptist
Mar. 3, 2018 – Less than 24-hours after a victory against Olivet College, the North Central College men's volleyball team finished off a string of home games on Saturday, defeating Adrian College (4-10, 1-3 MCVL) and Maranatha Baptist University (2-17) in a total of six sets at Gregory Arena.
The Cardinals started the day with a match against Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) contestant Adrian College. North Central came out strong in the first set only allowing the Bulldogs to gain six points with two kills from outside hitter Jake Braceros and three kills from middle hitter Casey Hiller to make the score 13-6. The Cardinals' rotation put outside hitter Bozhidar Kolev at the pin to bounce three kills off of the hands of setter Michael Trunzo to advance North Central's lead. Adrian's offense collected a couple of kills but a service error put the ball in the Cardinals hands, leading to kills from outside hitter Nick Lilley and Kolev to end the set 25-16.
The Cardinals and Bulldogs stayed neck-and-neck in the beginning of the second set with four Adrian kills and two North Central kills from middle hitter Brendan Crawford, but two Cardinal service errors kept the game tied at 7-7. Trunzo went on a seven-point run leading to kills from Crawford and Kolev to give the Cardinals a seven-point advantage. North Central collected aces from opposite hitter Jason Eslinger and Braceros to force a Bulldog timeout at 21-16. The timeout proved to be unsuccessful as Adrian's offense could not push through the Cardinal defense with a block from setter Raymond Kraus and Hiller and a second block from Crawford and Kolev gave the Cardinals another win, 25-18.
Similar to the first two sets, North Central took the lead early with seven kills from Lilley, Crawford, Kolev and Hiller making the score 13-7. The Bulldogs' offense gathered some momentum to put down six kills and the Cardinals suffered two critical attacking errors to just hang onto the lead by two, 17-15. North Central's offense continued to struggle with two attacking errors while Adrian continued to fight with four more kills to knot the score 22-22. A kill from Crawford gave the Cardinals possession of the ball but another attacking error forced the set into extra points. Fortunately for the Cardinals, the Bulldogs could not advance the serve which gave Kolev the opportunity to serve an ace to win the third set 26-24, winning the match 3-0 and giving North Central its sixth consecutive win.
Kolev stood out with 12 kills, two service aces and six digs. Crawford and Braceros tallied eight kills each while Hiller lead all players with a .778 hitting percentage. Libero Samuel Kharasch totaled nine digs and Trunzo led all players with 32 assists.
The second match for the Cardinals was against first-year program Maranatha Baptist who came off a 3-0 loss from Adrian earlier in the day. North Central switched up the starting lineup, a move that proved to be successful as the Cardinals set a new team single-match high and individual match-high for service aces. Opposite hitter Jacob Zemba went on a six-point service run in the first set with half of them resulting in aces to contribute to a 10-point Cardinal lead. Trunzo performed in similar fashion, adding seven points of his own with three aces and assisting kills from outside hitter Kevin Messer and middle hitter Justin Curtis to dominate the first set, 25-8.
The Sabercats' serve receive continued to struggle as North Central gained three service aces. The Cardinal offense refused to slow with three kills from Zemba and Curtis to give North Central a six-point lead in the middle of the second set. Maranatha's offense attempted to bite back with six kills but weak passing allowed three more North Central service aces along with five kills to put them further behind the Cardinals and a kill from outside hitter Mateo Gonzalez off the hands of Trunzo finished the set 25-15.
The Cardinals went into the third set with confidence quickly leading by six thanks to Eslinger who smashed five kills to force a Maranatha timeout. Setter Raymond Kraus took over for Trunzo with a kill, two service aces and assisted in kills from Curtis and Eslinger. The game was sealed with a Sabercat attacking error, finishing up the set 25-8 in favor of the Cardinals to gain their second 3-0 win of the day.
North Central set a new single-match high with 16 team service aces. Zemba set a new individual single-match high with six aces against the Sabercats. Curtis led all players with nine kills followed by Zemba with seven. Gonzalez led all players with a .852 hitting percentage and tied Zemba with seven digs.
North Central (11-6, 3-0 MCVL) hosts Nazareth on March 15 at 7 p.m. inside Gregory Arena. A link for live in-game coverage can be found HERE.
