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Box Score

UNION, N.J (Jan. 25, 2019) – In its debut as one of the nation's top-15 teams and playing on the court that will host this year's NCAA Division III championship, the North Central College men's volleyball team opened Day 1 of the Clash at Kean with a monstrous win, defeating the No. 4-ranked Kean University Cougars (3-1) in three-straight sets inside Hardwood Arena on Saturday.

The No. 10-ranked Cardinals took a short-lived lead to open the match thanks to kills from Kevin Messer and Casey Hiller off the hands of Michael Trunzo, but the Cougars went on a six-point run to lead 8-3 and force North Central to take a time out. The Cardinals responded with five points of their own shortly thereafter with a kill from Anthony Kluzak, two from Jacob Zemba and an ace from Trunzo. Kean came back and continued to battle with North Central for the lead as both teams kept the score close, ultimately coming to a 19-19 tie. An ace from Steven Zarzycki put the Cougars ahead 20-19 but Zemba and Messer fired two kills back at the Cougars to lead 22-20. The Cardinals soon found themselves at match point with another kill from Zemba and were able to force Kean to make a service error and win the first set, 25-23.

It seemed the match was going to go just as anyone expected for a matchup against two top-15 teams as both teams traded points until a bad set by the Cougars gave North Central a break to tie it up, 10-10. Kevin Braceros added back-to-back service aces to put the Cardinals ahead, 13-12, and both teams continued to keep it close until Kean took a 21-19 lead off of an error. In the critical moments of the set, North Central capitalized on three-straight errors by the Cougars to lead 22-21 and went on to win the second set 25-23 with two blocks from Kluzak, Zemba, and Bozhidar Kolev.

Kean opened the third set with three-straight points to show they were not going down in three without a fight. A kill from Kolev tied the score 4-4 and North Central began to slowly chip away at the Cougars' momentum, soon taking an 11-8 lead following a kill from Zemba. For the remainder of the match, Kean would not regain the lead and North Central sealed a 3-0 win off of two kills from Messer and two huge blocks by the Cardinals' defense, taking the third set 25-17.

Zemba led all players with 15 kills while Kolev and Kluzak each had five. Hiller led the defense with six blocks and Trunzo and Kluzak had three. As a team, North Central came away with nine blocks to Kean's four and forced its opponent to make 16 costly errors.

North Central (5-3) will face Messiah College at 11 a.m (ET) on Saturday for Day 2 of the Clash at Kean, followed by a matchup against the 2018 NCAA Division III runner-up, No. 2-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology at 1 p.m (ET). Links to live in-match coverage can be found HERE.