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

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (Feb. 25, 2023) - In its first College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) match of the 2023 season, the North Central College men's volleyball team turned in a commanding 3-0 victory over the Augustana College Vikings on Saturday inside the Carver Center. 

North Central moves to a 10-3, 1-0 CCIW record on the year while Augustana is now 8-4, 0-1 CCIW. Senior middle blocker, Jeremy Cardenas picked up four blocks against the Vikings to become North Central's all-time leader in career blocks with 209. 

The Cardinal's got an early lead with a five-point run that featured three kills by Jared Moser and a kill and ace by Ben Williams to set the score at 6-2. After three straight points put North Central in a hefty lead at 12-5, the Vikings managed to keep the Cardinal possessions at one and two points each for the remainder of the match. Point-by-point North Central inched closer to the set win before a Vikings service error helped the Cardinals to a 25-20 set win.

With a few Cardinal kills and a multitude of Vikings errors, North Central scored 15 consecutive points to lead 17-2 in set two. Augustana righted itself for five more points before three-straight points gave the set win to North Central at 25-7. 

North Central picked up five-straight points early in set three to lead 7-2. Augustana battled back with a four-point run of their own to bring the score within one at 15-14, still in favor of the Cardinals. The score stayed tight for much of the third set but managed two two-point possessions before Moser came in with a final kill to take set three 25-21. 

Moser led offensively with 10 kills while Ben Williams and Jake Miller each had seven. Williams also had two aces while Moser and Miller each had one. Cardenas and Tyler Donovan each had four blocks, and Donovan totaled 24 assists. Moser and Donovan each had seven digs on the day. 

The Cardinals take a trip to Bloomington, Illinois on Wednesday, March 1 to face CCIW opponent, Illinois Wesleyan University at 7 p.m. inside the Shirk Center. 

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