Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

LISLE, Ill. (Feb. 11, 2023) - Responding to an early challenge with aggressive front-court play and dogged defense, the North Central College men's volleyball team won the inaugural Christian Staple's Battle of Chicago & Maple Saturday at Benedictine University, securing a 3-1 victory to claim the new traveling trophy between the teams.

The annual match between the local rivals has been dedicated to Staple, a former assistant coach at North Central and the head coach at Benedictine before Staple's sudden and unexpected death in July. The teams have played each other 10 times since 2016. Benedictine owns a 6-4 all-time record in the series though the Cardinals have won the last three meetings.

The 10th-ranked Cardinals (6-2) owned a 21-19 advantage in the first set before Benedictine (4-3) put together a scoring run on the serve of Cooper Armstrong to pull ahead and eventually take the opening frame, 25-22. North Central leveled the match at 1-1 as the hosts scored five straight points on the serve of Tyler Donovan, including two service aces, to go up, 18-11. The Cardinals held on for a 25-15 second-set victory, then scored six straight points early in the third set before pulling away to win, 25-17. After hitting .120 in the opening set, North Central hit .360 and .412 in the next two sets, respectively.

The Cardinals took the lead for good in the fourth set on the serve of Jared Moser, who closed the match out with the last two of his match-high 22 kills on the evening. Jake Miller finished with nine kills and a team-high 16 digs, while Jeremy Cardenas hit .625 with 11 kills and six block assists. 

North Central travels to Thousand Oaks, California Thursday to take on California Lutheran University. Competition at Gilbert Arena is scheduled to get under way at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.

Download the free North Central Cardinals app, available for iOS and Android devices, to receive up-to-the-minute news, scores and updates on your favorite North Central teams. Click HERE for more information.