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

OWINGS MILLS, MD. (Apr. 30, 2023) - The North Central College men's volleyball team met a bittersweet ending to a phenomenal and historic season as the Cardinals fell 3-1 in the NCAA National Championship match to finish as runners-up to the Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks on Sunday. 

North Central's 25-4 season is a new record for the program since its start in 2016. The season featured a 17-game win streak, a perfect 11-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) record, a sweep of the CCIW regular season and tournament titles, and its first appearance in the NCAA National Championship match. The program also earned its largest induction groups to the All-CCIW, All-West Region, and All-America teams in a single season.

North Central dominated at the service line against Stevens as five Cardinals combined for seven aces, led by Ben Williams with three. Luke Schmidt led the team with 10 kills with Moser following closely with nine. Tyler Donovan totaled 27 assists in tonight's match while Parker Nelson picked up eight digs. North Central put on a block party with a combined 12 blocks led by Jeremy Cardenas with four with Mitchell Hester and Donovan each recording three. 

The Cardinals scored the first point of the match off a Duck attack error before dropping five-straight points to Stevens, setting the score at 2-6. Moser answered back with a kill before teaming up with Hester for a block that brought the score within one at 7-8. North Central struggled to spur more than one-point possessions as the Ducks' three-point runs moved them to a 25-15 set win. 

North Central climbed to an early 2-1 lead off Duck errors before Stevens found three-points to take a 4-2 lead. Jake Miller and Wil Padgett changed the momentum for Stevens as Padgett set up Moser for a kill that stopped Stevens' run. The score remained close until Williams notched back-to-back aces, sparking a four-point run that regained a 12-11 lead. Stevens climbed back to a 21-16 advantage but North Central quickly shut it down with a kill by Williams. Moser and Williams combined for four-consecutive points to level the score at 23-all. The teams battled extra points as Stevens moved to a 26-24 set win to lead two sets to none heading into the third. 

Stevens scored the opening two points of the third set before North Central turned up the heat scoring five-straight points that featured back-to-back blocks from Cardenas and Donovan, to take a 5-2 lead. Donovan won the ball back with a kill before Williams scored two more, bringing the score to 11-6. Four straight points more than doubled the score at 15-7 as Ben Pluskota took to the service line leading the Cardinals to 21 points before the Ducks reached double-digits. Taking it one-point at a time, North Central secured the set win 25-15.

The fourth set saw 13 tied scores and five lead changes. Stevens put up four straight points to take a 7-4 advantage before a kill by Schmidt evened the score at seven-all. North Central found themselves down two as Cardenas notched a kill and a block to take over the lead 19-18. Stevens found a three-point run to pull ahead 22-20. A Moser kill achieved the final tied score of the day at 22 as Stevens came away with the next three points to win the set 25-22 and the match three sets to one.

North Central brings home its first piece of national championship hardware with the runner-up trophy as well as finding two Cardinals on the NCAA All-Tournament Team with Nelson and Williams earning the distinction. 

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