The Carthage College men's volleyball team (23-7, 10-0 Continental Volleyball Conference West Division), ranked fourth in the April 15 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, opened play at the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship on Friday, April 25 with 3-2 win over No. 7 Rivier University (29-7) in a quarterfinal match at Juniata College's Kennedy Sports Center in Huntingdon, Pa.  Fifth-seeded Carthage's winning set scores over the fourth-seeded Raiders were 23-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-27 and 15-11.

The Red Men advance to a Saturday, April 26 semifinal match versus No. 1 Springfield College (25-7) beginning at 4 p.m., EDT.  Springfield swept Endicott College (19-13), 3-0, in Friday's first quarterfinal match with winning set scores of 25-9, 25-10 and 25-21. 

The championship got underway with a pair of play-in matches on Saturday, April 19.  Ninth-seeded Endicott College (19-12) knocked off eighth-seeded and No. 6 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (24-7), 3-0, while seventh-seeded and No. 5 the Stevens Institute of Technology (23-7) defeated 10th-seeded and No. 15 Baruch College (27-11), 3-1.  Endicott's winning set scores over MIT were 25-15, 25-20 and 27-25, and Stevens' winning scores over Baruch were 17-25, 17-25, 25-21 and 25-22.

On the other side of the bracket, second-seeded and No. 2 the State University of New York-New Paltz (28-3) swept the Stevens Institute of Technology (23-8) in a quarterfinal match with winning set scores of 25-21, 25-20 and 25-19, with third-seeded and No. 3 Juniata (28-4) outlasting sixth-seeded and No. 9 Kean University (26-8), 3-2, in the final quarterfinal with winning scores of 21-25, 25-18, 26-28, 25-17 and 15-6.  SUNY-New Paltz (28-3) meets Juniata (28-4) in Saturday's second semifinal match at 6:30 p.m., EDT with the Sunday championship match starting at 2 p.m., EDT.

Carthage qualified for the inaugural NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship in 2012 and reached the title match before losing to Springfield in Springfield, Mass.  The Red Men did not qualify for last year's championship in Cambridge, Mass.

In Carthage's quarterfinal victory, Rivier broke a 7-7 tie in the first set and never trailed after that.  The Raiders opened up a 12-8 lead which went to five points, 19-14.  The Red Men pulled to within a point, 24-23, but River's Chris Markuson collected the kill for the final 25-23 decision.

Carthage edged out to a 16-13 lead in the second set.  Back-to-back service aces gave the Red Men a four-point lead, 19-15, and Carthage went on to win by that margin, 25-21.  After trailing, 10-8, in the third set, the Red Men ran off six-straight points to take a four-point lead, 14-10.  The lead went to five, 20-15, and Carthage went on to win by six, 25-19.

Three-straight kills by Jim Schultz gave the Red Men a 7-3 lead in the fourth set.  The lead went to six, 13-7, and to seven at 18-11.  The Raiders came up with seven-straight points to tie the set, 18-18.  Carthage rebounded with three-consecutive points to break the tie and go up by three, 21-18, but the Raiders took five of the next seven points to tie it, 23-23.  Following ties at 24-24 and 25-25, a service error by Carthage's Jon Storm gave Rivier a 26-25 lead, and a kill by Markuson gave the Raiders the fourth set, 27-25.

The Red Men jumped out to a 8-1 lead in the fifth-and-final set.  Rivier pulled to within three points on six occasions, but Jim Schultz collected the final two kills for a 15-11 win.

Jim Schultz (Sr., Salem, Wis./Westosha Central) had a match-high 24 kills with a .275 attack percentage.  Kevin Farrell (Jr., Lombard, Ill./Glenbard East) had 12 kills and hit .478 with 10 digs, and Jon Storm (Jr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) had 12 kills and 11 digs.  J.P. Tulaka (So., Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove-North) had five kills, one block solo and six block assists, while setter Connor Wexter (Sr., New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way Central) averaged 10.60 assists per set with six block assists.  Chris Markuson led Rivier with 22 kills, while Aaron Almario had 12 kills and five block assists.  For Carthage coach L.J. Marx, the win was his 200th career victory (200-114, 10 years thru April 25).

"For whatever reason," said Carthage coach L.J. Marx, "we haven't done well this season against big teams.  We had some things we thought we thought we could exploit against Rivier, and we did.  We have five or six 'go-to' offensive players, depending on who matches up against us.  Connor Wexter does a fantastic job of directing that.  Kevin Farrell got hot for us in February.  A lot of teams weren't ready for him, so he's sort of a forgotten guy.  Unfortunately, he won't be a forgotten guy tomorrow against Springfield.  Somebody else will have to step up."

"Jim Schulz plays with a lot of energy all the time," said Carthage setter Connor Wexter, "and in all honesty, his errors are my fault, because I'm not setting the ball where it needs to go."  Once he gets going, he just swings away."  "You have to keep up your energy," said Schultz.  "When I play bad, I try and play even harder.  Eventually, it comes back."