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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Nazareth's quest for a second straight national title in men's volleyball was denied Friday in the opening round of the inaugural NCAA Division III Tournament at Springfield College's Blake Arena. The sixth-seeded Golden Flyers dropped a thrilling five-set match to third-seeded Carthage by scores of 25-21, 27-25, 26-28, 21-25, 18-16.

Nazareth closed its season with a record of 27-9. Carthage advanced to Saturday's semifinals and improved to 28-5. Carthage will play UC Santa Cruz in Saturday's semifinals at 6 p.m. UC Santa Cruz was a five-set winner over Rivier earlier Friday. Springfield and Hunter also won first-round matches and will play in the other semifinal Saurday at 4. The final in Sunday at 4 p.m. Nazareth won the national title in 2011 as the Golden Flyers defeated Carthage and Springfield in successive matches on its home court in the final Molten Division III Invitational. 2012 marks the first season in which the NCAA is sponsoring a national championship for Division III men's volleyball.

"It was just a tremendous volleyball match," said Nazareth coach Cal Wickens of the epic battle that lasted more than two hours and had the Golden Flyers within one point of advancing. "We made the plays we needed to make to win, but Carthage made a couple more at the end."

Junior middle blocker #Rob Kraft led Nazareth with 20 kills with just two hitting errors in 33 attempts for a .545 percentage. He also had four service aces, six digs and six blocks. Freshman middle blocker Luke Lawatsch added 17 kills in 32 attempts for a .406 percentage. Senior outside hitter Billy Gimello and junior Alex Houghtalen added 16 and 11 kills respectively. Gimello's 16 kills boosted his career total to 1,305, one shy of Nazareth's all-time mark of 1,306 kills held by Tom Maving.

"We have a never-give-up attitude," said Kraft. "We wanted to do it for the seniors, but we came up a little short."

After dropping the first two sets, the Golden Flyers battled back to win sets three and four and were ahead for most of the fifth set and were one point away from advancing with a 14-11 lead. Carthage rallied on the strength of kills by Randy Hansen and Pat Barry to tie the set at 14-14. Nazareth also had leads of 15-14 and 16-15 on respective kills by #Ellis Walsh and Kraft, before Carthage rallied again to score the last three points to win the match. Barry added two more kills, including the decisive swing on match point.

Hansen finished with 25 kills and Barry added 21 for the winners. Setter Connor Wexter had 64 assists. Nazareth setters EJ Wells-Spicer and Connor Ecklund combined for 72 assists. Walsh had nine kills in his final collegiate match and junior Dan Mowery added 11 digs.

Carthage hit .364 (16-4-33) to Nazareth's .212 (13-6-33) to take the first set. Hansen had seven of his kills, while Kraft had four kills for Nazareth. The score was tied at 14 following a kill by Lawatsch. A kill by Carthage's Jim Schultz gave the Red Men the lead for good.
 
Nazareth led 24-23 in the second set, but couldn't put the Red Men away as Carthage benefitted from a kill by Schultz and a block to take a 25-24 lead. Kraft tied the set with a kill, but Carthage answered with kills from Yanz and Barry to take the set and a decisive two-set lead. Kraft had seven kills in the second set.
 
Nazareth hit .342 (18-5-38) to take set three to extend the match. Walsh had five kills, while Gimello and Lawatsch had four kills each. Lawatsch had a kill for the 27th point and Nazareth benefitted from a Carthage attack error on set point.

Nazareth never trailed in taking the fourth set with a .500 hitting percentage (15-3-24). Lawatsch had five kills and Gimello four. The set was tied at 14, but Nazareth scored six of the next eight points to secure the lead for good, setting up a frantic fifth set in which Nazareth hit .346 (11-2-26) while Carthage hit .391 (13-4-23).

Carthage's victory was its third of the season over Nazareth and gives the Red Men a semifinal date with the Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz.