Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Mar. 10, 2021) - Earning their third home win of the season, the North Central College men's volleyball team took down Loras College in four sets, as they improve to 6-2 on the season and 4-2 in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) play.

With neither team gaining much ground in the early going, a kill by Jake Miller gave North Central a 16-11 advantage. The Duhawks responded as they later knotted things up at 24 apiece. North Central answered the call by taking three of the next four points to earn an opening set victory. Miller totaled five kills while Matt Nealon tallied eight assists. The second set started out like the first as the Cardinals tied the game at 8-8 off of a Duhawk service error. North Central would rattle off five straight points and not look back taking set two 25-14.

The Duhawks jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the third set, but back-to-back Cardinal kills and a block from Jeremy Cardenas brought the score back to even, 14-14. Loras would then go on a 6-1 run and record the final four points of the set, pushing the contest to a fourth set. Another close set early gave the Cardinals a slight 9-8 lead before a Matt Nealon ace and kills from Cardenas and Miller put North Central ahead 14-9. After both teams went back-and-forth, Jared Moser would close out the match on a kill set up by Nealon to take the final set 25-21.

Miller posted a season-high 15 kills to add to the Cardinal total of 56 on the night. Cardenas recorded two aces along with four block assists. Nealon dished out 37 assists and also had two aces in the contest. As a team, North Central hit .336 with four aces while holding Loras to .246.

Dorian Fiorenza totaled 15 kills and three digs while Joe Horn had 37 assists. The Duhawks had 45 kills as a team.

North Central welcomes Illinois Wesleyan to Gregory Arena as we are in the second-half of CCIW action. The match is set to begin at 12:00 PM and you can find links to live video and stats HERE.

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