Falcons Fall to No. 9 North Central

NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The CUW men's volleyball team fell Thursday night to 1-4 on the season to the nationally ranked Cardinals of North Central College, 20-25, 24-26, 25-22, 17-25.

The first frame of action set the tone for the rest of the night, as the Falcons and Cardinals would battle in a tight matchup, featuring ties at the 10 and 13-point mark.

The final tie of the set came courtesy of sophomore Tate Miller (Anthem, Ariz.), who would knot the game at 14 apiece.

But following this tie, the Cardinals would go a small 3-0 run to take the lead and hold the three-point margin later in the set, 22-19, before closing the set out at 25-20 to take the 1-0 advantage.

In the second set, CUW jumped out to a 6-3 lead following back-to-back kills from senior Spencer Herman (Kimberly, Wis.) from junior setter Logan Kebisek (Brookfield, Wis.).

The Falcons extended their lead to five near the midway part of the set, going up 13-8 following a kill from Tate Miller and a pair of attacking errors from North Central.

CUW's lead continued to grow throughout the set, eventually taking a 17-11 lead as the duo of Herman and Kebisek connected once more.

But the nationally ranked Cardinals showed no quit and mustered a comeback to tie the game at 21-21.

Junior Lucas Beres (Germantown, Wis.) would halt the comeback and earn the Concordia the narrow one-point lead, 22-21.

But North Central would respond and score two straight points to take the 23-22 lead.

Determined to pull out the second set victory, Spencer Herman and sophomore Will Wood (Savage, Minn.) reestablished the Falcon lead, following two straight kills, 24-23.

However, the set would ultimately fall North Central's way.

Like the third set, the Falcons took a quick lead in the early points, going up 5-3 after a Will Wood swing.

However, the score would eventually level at 11-11 before CUW went a 4-0 run, which featured a kill from Spencer Herman and Will Wood, to go up 15-11.

Concordia held the tight until the closing points of the set, as Spencer Herman set the score at 19-16.

A pair of errors followed by a service ace from senior Andy Ellingham (Burlington, Wis.) brought the score to 22-18 in CUW's favor.

After a quick run from the Cardinals, the Falcons scored three straight to secure the third-set victory as Spencer Herman had a kill from sophomore Parker Pearson (Keller, Texas).

Much like the previous sets, CUW and NCC found themselves tied near the fourth set's midway point.

However, the Cardinals' firepower proved too much for the Falcons as they took the fourth set, 25-17, to secure the match in four sets.

In the effort, Spencer Herman had a game-high 20 kills with a .390 hitting percentage. Herman also got it done defensively, tallying six block assists and six digs, while Tate Miller led the flock with seven digs, and Lucas Beres had seven block assists on the night.

Tate Miller also had double-digit figures in kills with 10, while Lucas Beres had a team-high two aces.

Meanwhile, Logan Kebisek recorded 37 assists.

The Falcons return to the court on Tuesday for their home opener against the Marantha Sabercats, with the first serve scheduled for 7 p.m.