Contact: Alex Mielcarz, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, ajmielcarz@noctrl.edu

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (April 1, 2026) – Men's volleyball saw its losing skid extend to three matches on Wednesday night, losing in straight sets to No. 4 Carthage College. Despite its loss, North Central qualified for the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Men's Volleyball Tournament, as No. 10 Loras College defeated Augustana College in four sets to finalize the CCIW tournament field with seeding still to be determined in the regular season's final contests Saturday.

Carthage (19-3, 8-1 CCIW) and No. 17 Illinois Wesleyan University both sit atop the CCIW table with records of 8-1, while Loras is in third at 5-4 and North Central (10-11, 4-5) is in fourth at 4-5. The final seeding of the tournament will be determined based on Saturday's results, as North Central hosts Loras, and Illinois Wesleyan hosts Carthage. The winner of North Central and Loras will be the three seed in the tournament, while the winner of Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan will be the top seed. The tournament begins with the semifinals on April 8 and concludes with the championship match on April 11. 

With tonight's result, the Cardinals have now lost four of their last five matches overall and are 1-3 in their last four CCIW contests.

Carthage used a 4-0 run early in the first set to build a 5-2 advantage. A swing by Almarales and an ace from Angelo Delgado brought the Cardinals to within one (5-4), but the Firebirds rebuilt their advantage to 10-6 after a pair of kills.

The Carthage lead grew to 19-12 before the Cardinal offense started on the comeback trail. Connor Davis and Almarales contributed kills to cut the deficit to 20-15 before Elijah Landeros dunked one home on a free ball to cut the Firebird lead to four (21-17). A pair of attack errors by Carthage brought coach Kevin Kustura's program to within two (21-19). They were followed by another free ball capitalization by the Cardinals, this time by Delgado, to make the score 21-20.

North Central was unable to complete its comeback effort, as the Firebirds regained control of the set to win it 25-21, outscoring the Cardinals 4-1 over the final five rallies. 

The second set started as a dogfight. The longtime foes traded blows in the early going, with Almarales sending a feed from Delgado bouncing off the Gregory Arena playing surface to give North Central a 5-4 lead. The Firebirds bounced back to eventually accrue an 11-9 advantage, but the Cardinal attack was undeterred, responding with consecutive kills by Almarales, including a perfectly placed cross-net swing, to tie the set at 11.

That would be all the Cardinal offense could muster, as the Firebird attack was relentless, finishing the set on a 14-4 run to run away with it 25-15.

The Firebird offense got right back to work in the third set, jumping out to a 7-3 lead. Carthage's edge grew to six points on multiple occasions: 14-8, 16-10 and 17-11. North Central started to claw its way back into the set with a small run. Delgado hit on the second touch of a possession to get the deficit down to four (17-13), and Almarales found an opening in the Carthage defense to get North Central within three (19-16). Mitchell Hester pummeled a ball into the floor to get the deficit back to three (20-17), and later teamed up with Almarales on a block to keep North Central in contention for the set (22-18).

The No. 4 team in the country ultimately prevailed, holding off the Cardinals' comeback to win the set 25-19 and the match 3-0.

Almarales led the team in kills (eight), digs (12), and blocks (three). Delgado dished out 16 assists and a pair of kills. Jeffrey McEachern Jr. and Elijah Landeros had four kills each.

Carthage hit at a .438 clip, while the Cardinals finished the night with a .117 hitting percentage. North Central had just 23 kills on 77 swings.

North Central concludes its regular season against No. 10 Loras on Saturday at 3 p.m. before its first postseason match on Wednesday, April 8, in the CCIW Tournament Semifinal.