KENOSHA, Wis. - The Illinois Wesleyan University men's volleyball team traveled to Kenosha, Wis. to battle with the reigning NCAA Division III Champions and College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin foe, No. 3 Carthage College. The Firebirds picked up the straight set sweep (25-13, 25-14, 25-20) of the Green and White to up its record to 14-3 (9-0 CCIW). With the setback, the Titans record slipped to 7-13 (2-8 CCIW).

Freshman Luke Hartke (Barrington, Ill.-Barrington) led the Titan offensive attack with his team-high five kills, while sophomore Michael Eastman (Chicago, Ill.-Saint Ignatius) notched four kills and sophomore Julian Perez (Orland Park, Ill.-Carl Sandburg) tabbed three.

Sophomore Bradley Benson (Lemont, Ill.-Lemont Township) garnered a team-high of eight assists and tied for the team lead four with digs.

Sophomore Dominic Bennettt (Lockport, Ill.-Plainfield Central) generated a five assist and four dig night while sophomore Adam Blackmore (Geneva, Ill.-Geneva) produced four digs and three assists.

The reigning champions held advantages in kills (36-18), aces (11-2), assists (33-16), digs (28-21), and hitting percentage (.329-.016).

The Green and White found themselves down 8-3 early in the opening frame. A Firebird error followed by an Eastman kill cut the deficit to 16-9 midway through the set. The slow offensive start for the Titans plagued any comeback hopes as Carthage ran away with the set, 25-13, to take set one.

Coming out of the huddle, IWU took advantage of back-to-back CC errors to face an 8-5 hole. However, a five point Carthage run extinguished the Titan momentum to create a 13-5 Firebird lead. Later in the second set, the Firebirds soared to a 20–9 cushion on another five point run. Carthage went on to claim the second set by a final score of 25-14.

The third set featured back-and-forth action as a Perez kill knotted the score at seven all. A four point Firebirds run pushed the score to 11-7 in favor of the home team. The Titans could not manufacture a run as the Carthage defense thwarted all comeback momentum as CC closed out the set and match by winning the third set 25-20.

The Green and White will continue CCIW play with a home match against Augustana College, Sunday, March 27. First serve is set for 2 p.m. inside of the Shirk Center.