Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, tkgallisath@noctrl.edu

Jan. 28, 2023 - The North Central College men's volleyball team took down the Dominican University Stars in a 3-0 sweep Saturday afternoon on their home court inside Gregory Arena.

This is the first time the Cardinals met the Stars since last year's NCAA Regional Tournament where Dominican knocked North Central out in the first round after a five-set thriller. The Stars are 0-2 after tonight's contest while the Cardinals are now 3-2 on the season.

Austin Scott got North Central rolling in the first set with a pair of kills to spark a four-point rally and bring the score to 4-1 before he and Jared Moser quickly extended that lead to 7-2 with a kill each. The Cardinals traded points with the Stars until a kill by Connor Davis and two from Moser set the score at 18-11. Two Star errors and a kill by Jeremy Cardenas granted North Central the set one win at 25-16.

A block by Jake Miller and a service ace from Michael Szews gave North Central the first two points of set two. Dominican combined for 12 kills in the second set as they battled to maintain the score within three points. North Central led for all of the second set and scored five of the last six points to win 25-19. The Cardinals led 2 sets to none heading into the third and final set.

Two attack errors by Dominican gave North Central an early 2-0 lead and the Cardinal's .478 hitting percentage in set three helped maintain that lead throughout the set. Kills by Scott and Miller boosted the Cardinals to a 21-12 advantage before trading the next eight points with Dominican. Moser and Tyler Donovan connected for the final kill to take the set 25-17 and the match 3-0.

Scott tallied four kills in each, combining for the team-high of 12 kills, while Moser was good for 10 kills, three aces, and two blocks. Donovan totaled 30 of the Cardinals' 36 assists while also creating a force defensively with four kills and a team-high of eight digs. Cardenas led the team with five blocks. 

North Central will be back at Gregory Arena for their next non-conference match against the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.

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