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

OWINGS MILLS, MD. (Apr. 28, 2023) - The No. 5 ranked North Central College men's volleyball team had a dominating performance in its NCAA Tournament semifinal match on Friday as the Cardinals dismantled the No. 1 Vassar College Brewers in a three-set sweep to advance to Sunday's national championship.

North Central (25-3) continues its stellar run in the postseason as the Cardinals gave Vassar (26-2) only their second loss of the season. The teams matched up well as the Cardinals posted a .265 hitting percentage as a team while Vassar turned in a .227 average. Ben Williams led all scorers in tonight's contest with 16 kills with Jared Moser totaling nine and Jeremy Cardenas had six. Moser also picked up two aces and five digs while Tyler Donovan led the team with 31 assists and three aces. Defensively, Cardenas had the Cardinals sole block while Parker Nelson had the team's high of nine digs. 

With Michael Szews at the service line, the Cardinals opened up the contest with four straight points as Luke Schmidt had a pair of kills alongside points from Williams and Cardenas. Vassar managed two points before Williams stepped in with a kill and ace combination followed by a kill by Moser to extend the Cardinal lead 8-2. Late in the set, Moser led a three-point run featuring two kills and an ace to give North Central the 21-13 advantage before the Brewers answered back with a four-point run of their own to set the score at 21-17. Trading the last seven points of the match, a bad set by Vassar sealed the set one win for the Cardinals 25-20. 

Vassar entered set two with a newfound momentum to take an early 10-7 lead over the Cardinals but the effort fell short as the North Central sparked a four-point rally to flip the script and lead 11-10. The lead would shift three more times before another four-point run solidified a 17-14 advantage for North Central. With the Cardinals at set-point, Vassar executed a two-man block to take over the possession at 21-24 before committing a service error on the next point giving North Central the two-set lead heading into the third. 

The third set began slower than the previous sets as the two teams traded the lead until a kill by Vassar leveled the score at 13-all. A kill by Moser sparked a four-point possession for the Cardinals that featured a kill for Mitchell Hester and a pair of service aces for Donovan to lead 17-13. Kills by Schmidt and Williams extended the Cardinal lead 21-16 as the Owings Mills Gym began to erupt. A service error by Vassar put North Central in match point position as Donovan notched his third ace of the evening to win 25-20 and advance to the championship match. 

No. 2 Stevens Institute of Technology took down No. 4 Messiah University in a three set sweep in the second semifinal match Friday night. 

North Central and Stevens will go to battle on Sunday, April 30 in the NCAA National Championship match in Owings Mills, Maryland. Competition is set for 2 p.m. (EST) back in Stevenson University's Owings Mills Gym.

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