Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, tkgallisath@noctrl.edu
Apr. 22, 2023 - The North Central College men's volleyball team continues its historic run in the postseason after claiming the NCAA Regional Championship title with their 3-1 victory over the two-time defending national champion, Carthage College on Saturday. The Cardinals are headed to Owings Mills, Maryland next Friday to take on Vassar College for a NCAA national semifinal.
North Central (24-3) defeated Carthage (18-8) for the fourth time this season, ending the Firebirds' perfect 8-0 run in NCAA play. North Central hit for .348 as a team while the Cardinal defense held Carthage to a .209 hitting percentage. Ben Williams and Jared Moser led with 17 and 16 kills, respectively. Moser tallied three service aces to break his own single-season record (38). Tyler Donovan totaled 48 assists, two service aces while leading the team with three blocks. Parker Nelson had the team-high in digs with 12.
Moser knocked down a pair of kills to help the Cardinals to a 6-4 lead early in set one. Carthage responded with five straight points to flip the script with a 10-7 advantage. The first set saw 12 tied scores and four lead changes before Carthage took hold of a 22-21 lead off a kill by Drew Jansen. Jeremy Cardenas leveled the score at 22-all to rattle the Firebirds and spur a four-point possession that helped the Cardinals to a 25-22 set win.
Carthage kicked off the second set with a four-point run but the Cardinals quickly matched that effort thanks to kills by Schmidt and Williams and a block by Donovan. Carthage's Mitch Geiger had two kills in a three-point possession that gave the Firebirds a lead that they maintained until Moser scored on a service ace to regain a 19-18 lead. The Cardinals traded the lead with the Firebirds for the remainder of the second set before a kill and a block by Carthage took hold of the second set win in extra points 29-27.
Carthage opened the third set with a kill that extended to a 7-4 lead before Moser added another ace to his stat line to put the Cardinals back within one. Trading the next 12 points, the Firebirds pulled ahead at 15-12 before the Cardinals went on a four-point rally to take an 18-16 lead. The Firebirds found one last opportunity to level the score at 20-all but North Central claimed five of the final six points of the set to win 25-21 thanks to a trio of kills by Moser and a final ace by Donovan.
North Central carried that momentum into the fourth where they picked up an early two point lead and continued to derail the Firebirds. Four Cardinals notched kills in a five-point possession that gave North Central a 15-6 lead and forced Carthage to use their final time out of the set. The Cardinals utilized one and two-point possessions to extend their lead as Donovan dished out the final pass to Cardenas to clinch the final set win 25-16.
No. 5 North Central heads to the NCAA Final Four for the first time in program history and will face No. 1 Vassar in a national semifinal in Owings Mills, Maryland on Friday, April 28 at 4 p.m.
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