The California Lutheran University Kingsmen volleyball team fell to Carthage College Wisconsin 0-3 on Friday, Jan. 31.

“We had them, we were dominating the match, we just failed to finish what we started,” Head Coach Kevin Judd said. “But they have that experience. We’re young in the sense that we put ourselves in big matches like that and I’m sure [Carthage] has had plenty of matches with that type of pressure.”

The Kingsmen now have an overall record of 6-5.

Though they lost, the Kingsmen didn’t fall easily, scoring at least 22 points in each match. They even had the leading score at times and returned every point.

“I thought we did a good job competing with them up until the very end, we just kind of let go of the rope,” senior middle blocker Justin Dietrich said.

The Kingsmen were hoping for a win, since they lost the two previous games. This was also their first home game of spring semester, students were back to cheer on the Kingsmen and the Royal Court even passed out foam fingers, pom poms, and other fan-paraphernalia.

“It was nice to have a crowd out there; it was nice to have people cheering us on giving us noise” Dietrich said.

Even all the way from Wisconsin, Carthage also brought a big fan base with them.

“I think we were a little bit surprised by the Carthage crowd. But I think it’s just getting students more involved and letting them know we have sports on campus they can come to. I think tonight was a stepping stone. It was great to see; it was a lot bigger crowd than we usually have,” senior opposite hitter Andrew Reina said.

The Carthage team had some aggressive and well-placed kills that boosted them over the Kingsmen ultimately leading to their loss.

Although the Kingsmen volleyball team didn’t become an National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III team until 2016, the team is not shy of skill. “[This week] we’ve been really working on our defense and our serving. I thought we did a pretty good job on serving tonight. I think we executed really well in practice, and we got to keep moving forward,” Reina said.

Team building doesn’t just come from skill, but also heart. Reina said he strives to “be a leader to the younger guys. It’s good to keep talking to the freshman and work them up.”

Last year the Kingsmen were nationally ranked and made it to post season.

“My hopes for the rest of the season are to finish out strong in the rest of our matches, and hopefully make it to our post season,” Dietrich said.