Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Feb. 19, 2022 - The sixth-ranked North Central College men's volleyball team took down College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) opponent, Illinois Wesleyan University in three swift sets Saturday afternoon inside Gregory Arena.

The Cardinals started set one off strong with a service ace by Matt Nealon that prompted two back-to-back errors by the Titans to pull North Central ahead 3-0. Despite allowing the Titans back into the game with a six-point rally highly due to misjudgment on the line by the Cardinals, North Central never lost the lead and battled out to a 25-20 victory for set one.

Set two brought the Cardinals their first six points strictly due to errors by the Titans. Austin Scott and Ben Williams brought a pair of service aces in set two while Nathan Jones followed a kill by Jared Moser with back-to-back service aces to bring the Cardinals to a 25-19 win for set two.

Wesleyan's Julian Perez scored two kills to begin set three but North Central was quick to steal and keep the lead through the rest of the set. A kill by Jake Miller followed by two service aces by Moser put the Cardinals up 5-2. After battling one and two-point possessions, North Central came back with a six-point rally that saw three aces by Williams to bring the score to 21-12. The last four points of the match saw two kills by Scott, and a kill each for Moser and Jeremy Cardenas.

Scott and Moser led the team with six kills each followed by Cardenas with five and Miller with four. Nealon led in assists with 18 while Williams had the team-high of four aces. Nealon, Ben Pluskota, and Parker Nelson each had five digs.

Wesleyan was led by KJ Johnson with nine kills and Michael Eastman with eight. Vince DiCosola and Bradley Benson had 16 and 11 assists, respectively. DiCosola, Jake Kougan, and Javier Romano each had two aces.

The Cardinals host the Aurora University Spartans on Feb. 23 for a non-conference match-up. Competition is set for 7 p.m. at Gregory Arena. 

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