NAPERVILLE, ILL.—The Illinois Institute of Technology men's volleyball team hit the road for a Saturday-afternoon road match at North Central College (Ill.). The Cardinals hit the ball on the screws as they eclipsed a .625 mark en route to a 3-0 victory (25-14, 25-13, 25-16) over the Scarlet Hawks.
IIT falls to 0-3, 0-0 NACC while North Central improves to 2-2, 0-0 CCIW.
"In the next couple days, we really have to figure out serving and serve receive," said IIT head men's volleyball coach Mark Johnston. "Those have been the two major parts of volleyball that we've been struggling at. Luckily we have two practices and a match to do that before we head out to Boston."
Both Jeremy Cardenas (seven kills) and Justin Curtis (10 kills) commanded the Cardinals offense with a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage. Michael Trunzo converted 33 assists for the North Central offense.
The Scarlet Hawks hit .111 in the contest, where seven different players contributed kills led by Easton Kays' four. Derek Bostick paced the IIT defense with three digs while Jannik Birkholz registered 17 assists.
Illinois Tech dropped the opening two sets 25-14 and 25-13 before they led for the only time in the match when they held a 2-1 edge in set three. It didn't result in momentum as North Central iced the match with a 25-16 win in set three.
The Scarlet Hawks will host Maranatha Baptist on Tuesday, February 4 at 6:00 p.m.