RIVER FOREST, Ill. (Feb. 12, 2026) – In its first road contest after a seven-match homestand, the North Central men's volleyball program fell to No. 20 Dominican University in four sets, 3-1, on Thursday evening.
With the loss, the Cardinals fell to 0-2 on the season against American Volleyball Coaches Association top-20 opponents.
Dominican (8-1) stormed back late in the first set after trailing 18-15, tying it at 18-18, then again at 23 a-piece, and eventually at 24. A Brannen Almarales kill with an assist from Jonathan Brown gave the Cardinals set point (25-24), but the Stars fought back again to give themselves set point at 26-25.
Two rallies later, down 27-26, North Central knotted the set up once more, this time at 27, on a Jefferey McEachern Jr. kill off of a set from PJ Vaughan. Almarales and Brown connected again on the next rally to give the Cardinals a 28-27 set point, but Dominican strung together three unanswered points, two off of Ty Geschke kills, to win the set 30-28.
North Central (6-3) claimed the second set of the night 25-23. The Cardinals gained their largest advantage of the set early on, using a 6-1 run to go up 12-7 on the Stars. Connor Davis and Elijah Landeros both contributed kills on the run, while McEachern added an ace.
Dominican responded with a run of its own, going on a 4-1 run to pull within two (14-12). North Central didn't let that stand for long, as Almarales and McEachern sent feeds from Vaughan rocketing down on the Stars' side of the net, extending the Cardinal lead to 19-15. A quick 3-0 run later in the set brought the Stars to within 20-19, which they would eventually work to a 22-22 tie, but kills from Almarales and Davis, which sandwiched a Dominican attack error, allowed the Cardinals to pull away and win the set 25-23.
The third set was a 25-17 victory for the Stars in which they had 23 total attacks that led to 16 kills with zero errors (a .696 hitting percentage). The Cardinals were on the opposite side of the coin, offensively. In the third set, North Central attempted 20 attacks. Six turned into kills while four were errors, giving them a .100 hitting percentage.
The fourth set began in North Central's control, as it jumped out to an early 14-9 lead after a block from the reigning College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Defensive Player of the Week, Chris Mactal, and PJ Vaughan.
The Stars would score on 11 of the next 12 rallies, flipping the set on its head and giving Dominican a 20-15 advantage. The Cardinals clawed back, with a pair of Dominican errors and a solo block by Almarales pulling North Central back to within two (20-18), but the Stars' momentum proved to be too strong, as Dominican would score on five of the match's last seven rallies to win the fourth set 25-20, and the match 3-1.
Ty Geschke led the Stars with 18 kills on 41 swings (.293 hitting percentage) to go along with 6 digs. Thomas Hirsch contributed 10 digs and a .389 hitting percentage, while Landon Kassulke had 42 assists on the night for the host school.
Defensively, Dominican had three players contribute on two blocks each, while Kendall Esparza led the Stars with seven digs.
The Cardinal attack – which hit .125 as a team – was paced by Almarales' double-double effort (10 kills, 12 digs). McEachern also had a 10-kill night. PJ Vaughan had 33 assists and an ace in the contest. Davis and Mactal had three blocks each.
North Central conceded 14 aces in the contest, a season high. The Cardinals' 25 attack errors tied a season high and their .125 hitting percentage was a season low.
Coach Kevin Kustura and the Cardinals are right back on the horse tomorrow, as they head North to take on the Milwaukee School of Engineering at 7 p.m.
