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

DUBUQUE, Iowa (Mar. 30, 2022) - In an effort to clinch the No. 2 spot in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season, the North Central College men's volleyball team was undone by the Loras College Duhawks 3-1 on Wednesday at Lillis Court.

North Central broke away early in set one as back-to-back kills by Ben Williams sparked the Cardinals to a 9-6 lead. A trio of points from the Duhawks tied the score at 12-all but the Cardinals fought to stay ahead until a Duhawks' five-point run brought the score to 21-17. Kills by Jeremy Cardenas and Jared Moser tied the set at 24-all but Loras eventually took set one in extra points, 27-25.

Much like set one, set two saw the Cardinals with an ealy lead at 10-7. With the score at 17-16 in favor of the Cardinals, the Duhawks found a five-point rally to take the lead 20-17 before North Central answered back with four-points of their own--three kills by Moser and one by Matt Nealon. Kills by Nathan Jones and Moser and a service ace by Nealon boosted the Cardinals ahead, as they took set two in extra points 28-26.

With the matched tied at 1-1, the Duhawks found the momentum to drop the Cardinals from the gate in set three, never allowing North Central to recover. Loras took set three 25-19. The Cardinals once again had an early lead in set four until the Duhawks tied it up at 12-all. From there, North Central struggled for more than single-point possessions, falling to the Duhawks 25-17. 

Moser matched his single-game high of 18 kills for the third time this season while Jake Miller and Williams had 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Nealon raked in 39 assists and two blocks. Williams and Cardenas each had three blocks while Moser led defensively with 15 digs. 

Corey Mayotte led the charge for the Duhawks with 15 kills Joe Horn had 45 assists. Patrick Mahoney and Andres Martinez had five and four kills, respectively. David Beach had 12 digs while Dorian Fiorenza had three aces. 

With the conference rankings now Carthage (9-0), Loras (8-2), North Central (8-3), and North Park (5-6), CCIW regular season play and conference tournament seeding will be determined after Saturday's matches featuring Loras versus Carthage and Millikin (0-20) versus North Central. In the event of a tie-breaker, the conference will look at the head-to-head competition set differential between all tied teams.

The Cardinals host their last match of the regular season against the Millikin University Big Blue on Saturday for Senior Day. Match time at Gregory Arena is set for 3 p.m. 

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