Contact: Emily Zadny, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Box Score

GREENVILLE, Ill. (Mar. 16, 2019) – The North Central College men's volleyball team rebounded from its Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) loss on Friday evening and brought home a 3-1 victory against the Greenville University Panthers (11-11, 0-4 MCVL) on Saturday afternoon.

North Central took a 10-5 lead early in the first set with kills from Jason Eslinger, Kevin Messer, and Jacob Zemba as well as strong defense at the net with blocks from Eslinger, Zemba, Anthony Kluzak, and Justin Curtis. The Panthers fought back and capitalized on three errors by the Cardinals to come within two late in the set, but four straight points for North Central put the team ahead 24-18 and led to a 25-19 win for North Central.

Greenville got on the board first in the second set, taking a 2-0 lead, but a block from Eslinger and Kluzak and a kill from Messer gave North Central the early 3-2 lead. Zemba added a kill and three errors by the Panthers extended the lead 9-6 in favor of North Central and the Cardinals continued the barrage with four more points off of three more errors and a kill from Eslinger to lead 15-8. Before they knew it, North Central was up 23-15 with kills from Zemba, Curtis and Eslinger, ultimately winning the second set 25-16 off of yet another kill from Eslinger.

The momentum shifted in the third set and Greenville was up 8-4. Just as North Central made a move to catch up, the Panthers pulled ahead 13-7 for their largest lead of the set. Both teams continued to trade points until Greenville scored three in a row and extend the lead 21-16. A error by North Central gave Greenville its first chance at set point with the score 24-20 and although Curtis tried to hold off the opponent with two kills of his own, the Panthers won the third set, 25-22.

Not looking to have this match go to five sets, the Cardinals came out with six straight points, all generated by strong serving from Zemba and coupled with strong defense from Eslinger and Curtis. The Panthers called a time out and tried to regain composure, but shortly thereafter, North Central racked up six more points, including two aces from Kevin Braceros, to get to match point. The Panthers added one more on for good measure, but Nicho Calles closed the door on the match with a kill off of an assist from Zemba to give North Central the fifth set, 25-15.

Eslinger led all players with 19 kills and came up with seven blocks while Anthony Kluzak added six. Kevin Braceros added two service aces. As a team, the Cardinals ended with a .302 hitting percentage and led in all team categories except for service aces which they tied with four with the Panthers.

North Central (13-8, 3-1 MCVL) continues conference play and returns home on Friday, Mar. 23 to host Loras College inside Gregory Arena at 7:00 p.m. Links to live statistics and video coverage can be found HERE.