The Dominican University men's volleyball team remained perfect on the 2020 season, picking up what may prove to be a signature win, taking a five-set thriller from the tenth-ranked Carthage College Red Men on Wednesday evening at the Igini Sports Forum, 19-25, 25-23, 25-22, 17-25, 15-10.  With the win, the Stars improve to 5-0 with a tri-match featuring Dominican, California Lutheran and the #6 MSOE Raiders on deck for Saturday in River Forest.
 
"I'm very proud of how this team played tonight," commented Cameron Andrew, the Stars' first-year head coach, following the win. "We didn't always play the best ball, but they kept grinding and found a way to pick up a win. We showed some great resiliency to get back on track after really struggling in the first and fourth sets.  The bench really stepped up with guys like Patrick Bradford, Adrian Cebula and Trey Cowan playing big roles to really help the team.  We can enjoy this win for tonight but the biggest message to the guys after the match is to keep our foot on the gas. We have to let this win fuel us to come out in practice tomorrow and continue to see how far we can push ourselves. We have two really tough matches this weekend and have to get better and prepare for those matches starting now."
 
Carthage outhit the Stars, hitting .328 to Dominican's .218 attack percentage but the match was won at the service line where the Red Men gave away 26 points on service errors without picking up a single ace.  The Stars limited their mistakes at the service line committing 17 errors in the five-set win after overcoming 21 errors in a three-set win last Friday.  Blocking was even on the night with both sides picking up ten blocks while the Stars held a 40-34 advantage in the back row in digs.
 
Jack McGuire ran the Stars' offense, doling out 42 assists while using his complete arsenal of offensive weapons. Ethan Klosak paced the attack with 15 kills on 34 swings, hitting .353 in the winning effort. George Kougan added nine kills and Mat Molloy finished the night with eight on 15 swings.  McGuire called his own number 15 times, logging seven kills, while Jake Sidner and Cebula finished with four kills apiece.
 
For Carthage, Jacob Allard ran the offense, collecting 50 assists.  Junior Mat Slivinski logged a match-high 16 kills, leading four with double-digit kills for the Red Men.
 
Dominican's Kougan and Bregin DeMarco shared game-high honors with nine digs apiece while Molloy logged six block assists at the net and Klosak finished with a pair of solo blocks and three block assists.