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

Mar. 21, 2022 - Defending their home court, the fifth-ranked North Central College men's volleyball team swept the No. 13 California Lutheran University Kingsmen on Monday night inside Gregory Arena.

North Central found themselves down 5-2 early in the first set against the Kingsmen but soon utilized a pair of kills and a block by Ben Williams to tie the score at six all. With some back-and-forth points that saw five more ties, the Cardinals were finally able to break away with four consecutive points featuring kills by Jared Moser and Jake Miller to bring the score to 21-16. The Kingsmen followed that up with four straight points of their own before a kill by Jeremy Cardenas secured the set for North Central 25-22.

The Cardinals got off to a swift 8-2 lead to start set two. North Central had four separate stints of four-point runs to shut down California Lutheran 25-11 in set two. 

Looking to complete the sweep, Miller rattled off three kills in a four-point run to pull ahead 11-8. A flurry of Kingsmen attack errors brought the Cardinals to their final point as Moser threw down a kill directly into a Kingsman's shoelaces to take set three 25-21.

Miller led the Cardinal offense with 12 kills while Moser totaled nine kills to surpass his 500th career kill. Williams and Cardenas each had eight kills on the evening. Matt Nealon led with 35 assists and shared the digs lead with teammate Ben Pluskota with 12 each. The Cardinals tallied 3 solo blocks and 10 block assists, led by Cardenas with two solo blocks and a trio of block assists.

Ben Weber led the Kingsmen with 13 kills while Seamus McDonagh and Taylor Marks split the assists with 13 and 12, respectively. Eli Moore led the Kingsmen defensively with 11 digs.

The Cardinals head to Rock Island, Ill. on Wednesday for a conference match against the Augustana College Vikings. Match time at the Carver Center is set for 7 p.m.

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