NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The Concordia Wisconsin men's volleyball team dropped a hard-fought five-set match at North Central on Tuesday evening, falling 3-2. The Falcons move to 0-7 on the season after the tightly contested road battle.
 
The opening set featured back-and-forth action, with Concordia Wisconsin edging out the Cardinals. Sophomore Reid Scott (Chandler, Ariz.) jump-started the match with back-to-back kills and later added consecutive service aces to give CUW an 8-6 advantage.
 
North Central tied the set at 12-all, but the Falcons responded with a four-point run capped by a service ace from sophomore Parker Butterfass (Shakopee, Minn.), forcing a Cardinal timeout. NCC answered with three straight points, only for CUW to counter with another four-point run to prompt a second North Central timeout.
 
The Cardinals again pulled within one at 20-19, leading the Falcons to regroup during a timeout. Capitalizing on North Central errors and a key kill from Scott, Concordia Wisconsin closed out the set to take an early 1-0 match lead.
 
North Central bounced back by claiming the next two sets to move ahead 2-1.
 
The Falcons responded in the fourth set with a dominant 12-4 run midway through the frame, building a 19-13 cushion. Sophomore Owen Kolozsy (Carol Stream, Ill.) recorded three kills during the surge. Despite a late push from NCC, CUW maintained control and secured the fourth set to force a deciding fifth.
 
Concordia Wisconsin opened the final set with momentum, as seniors Tate Miller (Anthem, Ariz.) and Chase Ammons (Elm Grove, Wis.) combined for a block to spark an early 4-1 lead. North Central called a timeout and battled back to even the score at 12-12. After a Falcon timeout, the Cardinals claimed the next two points, but a kill by Kolozsy briefly kept CUW alive. North Central ultimately closed the set to earn the match victory.
 
Scott led the Falcons with a double-double for the second consecutive match, posting 20 kills to tie a career high and adding 12 digs while hitting .318. Kolozsy followed closely with 17 kills on a .318 hitting percentage.
 
The Falcons recorded 10 service aces in the match, led by Scott with four and Butterfass with three. The total ties a program record for aces in a five-set match, last achieved during the 2024 season at Widener.
 
Sophomore setter Hayden Hurley dished out 51 assists, marking just the fourth time in program history a Falcon has reached 50 assists in a five-set contest. The previous occurrence came in 2023 when Logan Kebisek tallied 50 assists against Dominican.
 
Defensively, freshman Drew Nelson (Oak Creek, Wis.) served as the primary libero and collected 12 digs. Ammons and Miller anchored the net with four and three block assists, respectively.
 
The Falcons return to the road next weekend, traveling to face Trine on Friday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m. ET in Angola, Ind., before taking on Adrian on Saturday.