CHICAGO (March 21, 2026) – The North Central College men's volleyball program turned in its most dominant showing of the season, steamrolling its way to a 25-12, 25-14, 25-21 win over North Park University, securing the season sweep over the Vikings. The Cardinals committed just nine attack errors over the three-set match, while blocking seven North Park swings and hitting at a .290 clip, their fourth-best percentage of the season.

North Central (10-8, 4-3 CCIW) has now won the last four matches over North Park (1-20, 0-6), not dropping a single set in any of the four matches that stretch back to March of last year.

The win was North Central's 10th of the year and got the Cardinals to 4-3 in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. In the only other conference match today, No. 14 Loras College defeated No. 1 Carthage College in five sets tying the Firebirds and No. 20 Illinois Wesleyan University atop the CCIW standings at 5-1. North Central now stands just 1.5 matches back of first place with matches against Carthage, Loras and Illinois Wesleyan to close out the conference slate. 

The Cardinals jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the first set, helped along by a 6-0 run that included a pair of kills by Brannen Almarales and two blocks, one from Mitchell Hester and Angelo Delgado, and another from Hester and Jeffrey McEachern Jr.

The lead grew to 10 after a block by Chris Mactal and Elijah Landeros made the score 17-7. North Central eventually doubled up the Vikings after a finish by Almarales moved the score to 20-10. The Cardinals would go on to finish the set on a 5-1 run that included a pair of kills by Landeros and a block from Landeros and Mactal to win 25-12.

James Bullock Jr., the two-sport athlete who was selected to the men's basketball All-CCIW second team this Winter after averaging 25.8 points per game, went on a three-rally run at the service line to close out the first set in his first action of the season with the men's volleyball program.

The second set started much tighter than the one that preceded it, but North Central created some separation between itself and North Park with a 5-0 run to go up 15-8. Almarales contributed a kill during the run and later teamed up on a block with Hester. Hester also authored a solo block during the run.

North Central won eight of the last 11 rallies to take the set 25-14. The last three points for the Cardinals all came from Viking errors. North Park had 26 of them during the match.

The Viking struggles continued in the third set, as six of the Cardinals' first nine points came off of North Park errors.

Late in the set, PJ Vaughan took a pass from Delgado and sent it careening off the Carlson Gymnasium floor to give the Cardinals a 16-12 lead. Two rallies later, McEachern put home a swing to extend the Cardinal lead to 18-12.

North Park got back to within three at 22-19, but the Cardinals did not allow the match to get any closer, trading points with the Vikings down the stretch to win the third set 25-21, and the match 3-0.

Almarales led the team in kills with 11 while contributing to a pair of blocks and collecting nine digs, falling just shy of the ninth double-double of his senior campaign.

McEachern sent seven swings to the floor while Mactal sent six. Mactal was second on the team in hitting percentage with a .500 mark, trailing only Hester, who led the match with a .625 clip, authoring five kills on eight swings to go with his match-leading four blocks.

Brown accrued double-digit digs with 11 to lead the defensive effort on the backline.

North Central now stares down the barrel of what may be the toughest four-match stretch in the country, as it is scheduled to face four top-20 opponents to close out the season. The gauntlet begins on Wednesday with a non-conference match against No. 11 University of California, Santa Cruz inside Gregory Arena at 7 p.m. Each of the Cardinals' last four matches will be played at home.