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Emily Zadny, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302
Box Score
OLIVET, Mich. (Mar. 30, 2019) – The North Central College men's volleyball team used the momentum from its Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) win less than 24 hours prior to defeat the Olivet College Comets (3-15, 1-6 MCVL) in three sets on Saturday morning and win its third straight conference match.
Olivet's Brock Pringle had the first point of the match off the hands of Aaron Giorgi, but North Central halted the Comet's momentum with a kill from
Jacob Zemba, service ace from
Michael Trunzo, and another kill from
Bozhidar Kolev to lead 3-1. The Cardinals continued to tack on the points, leading by as much as seven late in the set following a huge block from
Anthony Kluzak,
Kevin Messer and Zemba, forcing Olivet to call a timeout trailing 18-11. The opponents capitalized on two errors following the timeout and a service ace from Pringle to pull within four, but North Central denied any hope of coming back, winning the first set off of a kill from
Nick Lilley, 25-18.
It was Olivet on the board first in the second set and hanging onto a narrow lead early, but a block from Trunzo, Messer and Kluzak followed by a kill from Zemba gave the Cardinals their first lead of the second set, 5-4. The Comets tied the score 10-10 off of a block from Pringle and Dan Hayes before Hayes came up with a solo block to take back an 11-10 lead. North Central pulled away 14-11 with back-to-back kills from Messer and one from Kluzak, forcing Olivet to use a timeout. Messer and Kluzak teamed up again for three more points for North Central and an 18-14 lead before a five-point run sparked by a kill from Kolev finalized the second set in favor of North Central, 25-18.
The Comets committed three errors to open the third set which gave the Cardinals the early lead, but the Cardinals soon feel into the same trap or errors and the score was quickly knotted, 11-11. Zemba and Kluzak both contributed kills to help North Central regain a 15-12 lead en route to a four-point run led by Kolev that solidified the third set and the match for North Central, 25-18.
Kolev and Kluzak paced the Cardinals with 11 kills each while Kolev had a team high three assists. Zemba had three blocks and eight kills and
Samuel Kharasch had ten digs in the match.
North Central (16-9, 6-2 MCVL) concludes the regular season with a road match at No. 1 Carthage College on Friday, Apr. 5. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m. and links to live coverage can be found HERE.
