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

Mar. 25, 2023 - The No. 7 ranked North Central College men's volleyball team opened its two-part weekend of College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) play with a three-set victory over the Loras College Duhawks Saturday afternoon inside Gregory Arena. 

Earlier this season, North Central (17-3, 7-0 CCIW) battled through five sets with Loras (15-4, 4-3 CCIW) at the Duhawks' Lillis Court where the Cardinals came away with the 3-2 win. On its home court, North Central quickly found its momentum to lead the Cardinals to a three-set sweep over the Duhawks. Jared Moser went to work with 14 kills, two service aces, and two blocks on the day, followed closely by Austin Scott's 13 kills, one ace, and seven digs. Tyler Donovan totaled 33 assists while tying with Jeremy Cardenas for three digs each. Ben Pluskota led the Cardinals with 12 digs.

Loras found itself with an early advantage as the Duhawks scored the first four points of set one, that is until three straight Duhawk errors tied the score up at six-all. From there, the Cardinals found themselves in an even match, trading point-for-point with the Duhawks. Back-to-back kills by Moser and a ball-handling error by Loras put the Cardinals up 22-20. Luke Schmidt and Scott extended the North Central lead 24-21 before an attack error by Loras gave the Cardinals the 25-22 set win. 

Set two saw the Cardinals quickly climb to an 11-5 lead as a Connor Davis kill sparked a four-point run with Moser at the service line where he put down back-to-back service aces. Scott later rallied for three-straight kills of his own to put the Cardinals up 18-9. North Central picked up the last four points of the second set to finish ahead 25-16.

Loras scored the first three points of the third set before North Central went on a five-point run to take the 6-4 lead. After building their lead two points at a time, the Cardinals turned in six-straight points with Carson Skalbeck at the service line to lead 21-11. Final points by Davis and Schmidt helped North Central to the 25-16 set victory to win the match 3-0. 

North Central hosts the Augustana College Vikings tomorrow Sunday, March 26 for its second CCIW match of the weekend. Match time in Gregory Arena is set for 1 p.m.

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