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

Mar. 17, 2023 - The North Central College men's volleyball team had a break in conference play, hosting the Marian University Sabres inside Gregory Arena on Friday where the Cardinals proved victorious with their 11th 3-0 sweep of the season. 

North Central moves to a 15-3 (5-0 CCIW) record on the year after taking down Marian (11-8, 4-3 NACC) in three sets. Ben Williams stepped up for the Cardinals offensively, totaling 11 kills on the night with a .391 hitting percentage. Austin Scott followed with 10 kills on the night while Luke Schmidt had seven. Tyler Donovan totaled 34 assists and had a team-high of four blocks.

The Cardinals were plagued by errors at the start of the first set, falling into a 7-1 deficit early on. North Central managed a couple of three-point possessions to narrow the spread, but it wasn't until Williams sparked a five-point rally that the Cardinals finally took over the lead 21-19. The Sabres managed two more points before North Central closed out the first-set win 25-21, with another three-point run.

Set two saw 14 tied scores and six lead changes. The Sabres managed four straight points to set the score at 14-13 before trading points for much of set two. With Marian at set point, Connor Davis followed up a Sabre error with a kill to flip the script and take the 25-24 lead. After battling point-for-point, the Cardinals took the set two win in extra points, 28-26 thanks to a Scott kill and a Sabre error.

Schmidt snagged the opening point of the third set, setting the momentum for the Cardinals' climb to a 10-5 advantage early on. Scott totaled five kills in the final set, his final being the set point as North Central led 24-18. A service error for Marian gave the Cardinals the 25-19 set win.

North Central enters its second half of conference play on Wednesday, March 22 as the Cardinals host the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans inside Gregory Arena at 7 p.m. 

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