Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302
 
Box Score
 
AURORA, Ill. (Feb. 3^rd, 2020) – In their first contest of the season, the No. 14 North Central College men's volleyball team came away victorious on Wednesday night as they beat Aurora University in three sets.

The first set was back-and-forth as neither team led by more than two points until the Cardinals went on a 3-0 run to push their lead to 24-21. Following an Aurora timeout and attempted comeback, North Central prevailed by taking the first set, 25-22.

Bouncing back from a .179 hitting performance is the first set, the Cardinals hit .417 in set number two as they won 25-19. North Central tallied 13 kills plus an ace a piece from Matt Nealon, Ben Pluskota, and Jared Moser to secure the second set. Looking for the 3-0 sweep and a win on opening night, the Cardinals stayed hot in the third set hitting .652 and ended on a 14-4 run to win in dominating fashion, 25-13.

Nealon posted five aces in the contest, which ranks second all-time in program history. On top of that, he dished out 30 assists and had four kills. Sophomore Jake Miller led the Cardinals in kills with 10 (.692) over the three sets while Ben Williams added eight. Samuel Kharasch had eight digs on the evening to help seal the win.

Aurora was led on offense by Emmanuel Chaidez with nine kills while James Karwin tallied 21 assists in the three sets, the only Spartan to record an assist.

The Cardinals visit the Eagles of Benedictine University on Saturday at noon in the Dan and Ada Rice Center. Click HERE to find live stat and video links for that match.
 
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