Contact: Alex Mielcarz, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, ajmielcarz@noctrl.edu
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Jan. 14, 2026) – Last season, the North Central Cardinals came close to a berth in the national tournament. The Cardinals finished as the No. 14 team in the AVCA poll and the 14th-ranked team in the NCAA Power Index. After all the automatic bids were awarded to conference winners, the Cardinals were left out of the tournament, becoming one of the first two teams to miss the cut, despite a 15-7 campaign.
Head coach Kevin Kustura hasn’t forgotten and has his program’s focus on getting to the national postseason.
“If you can win the [College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin], you can win the national championship,” Kustura said. “Our out-of-conference schedule being as tough as it is will prepare us for the conference season.”
Kustura has constructed one of the toughest schedules this program has seen in its 10 years of varsity competition.
The Cardinals, who enter the year as the No. 18 team in the nation in the AVCA poll, have five opponents on the schedule who were named in the preseason top 20, including No. 9 California Lutheran University, No. 10 Aurora University, No. 14 Loras College, No. 2 Carthage College and No. 13 University of California, Santa Cruz.
Additionally, the Cardinals play 14 of their 22 matches at home this season, tying the program record from 2023, a year in which the Cardinals went 13-1 in Gregory Arena, won the CCIW tournament, won a regional tournament and fell in the national title game to No. 2 Stevens.
Kustura hopes Gregory Arena has a true home-court advantage this season.
“We know we have to win to get people here,” he said. “The public’s support means a lot to our players and our program.”
The CCIW preseason poll, released two weeks ago, has North Central slotted in third behind last year’s conference runner-up, No. 14 Loras (who has been voted to do the same), and No. 2 Carthage, who has been selected to go back-to-back in the CCIW Champions.
The Cardinals will have to face Carthage, Loras and the rest of the CCIW with quite a few new faces. Kustura, who is entering his second season at the helm of the men’s volleyball program, welcomed a class of five freshmen to campus this fall, the first class he helped bring to campus as head coach.
“They’re really solid,” Kustura said of the freshmen class. “They’ve bought in, and some of them will have chances to compete right away.”
North Central lost three of its top four point-getters from last season, as well as dynamic setter Tyler Donovan.
“We lost some guys this summer,” Kustura said. “You can’t replace [Donovan], but if we play fast, clean, and error-free, we’ll be all right.”
Last season, the Cardinals ranked 11th in kills per set, 17th in assists per set and 14th in attacks per set.
This year, Kustura will turn to players like opposite hitter Brannen Almarales, setter PJ Vaughan and outside hitter Jefferey McEachern – all of whom are returners – to step into premier roles. They’ll get to do so after a full offseason of training under Kustura’s system.
McEachern was second on the team last season in points with 204 and kills with 181. Vaughan was third on the team with 10 aces. Almarales, who appeared in just seven matches last season, averaged 2.10 kills per set, which was the fifth-best mark on the team.
Kustura was named the second head coach in program history just before the 2025 campaign, which posed some challenges.
“When I got here, it was more about not rocking the boat,” he said. “This year, I’ve had a lot more time to implement my system and continue to build the winning culture.”
He’s already seeing it pay off.
“The guys have really embraced the brotherhood dynamic,” Kustura said. “It’s a big part of what North Central is known for.”
The Cardinals open the season on Thursday against Illinois Institute of Technology, a team North Central has never lost to in its nine all-time meetings. The men’s volleyball team will then open a seven-game homestand on Jan. 22 with a match against Concordia University Chicago. The homestand includes a triangular with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and No. 9 California Lutheran on Jan. 31, and concludes with a match against Calvin University on Feb. 7.
The conference schedule begins on Feb. 21 with a road match against Augustana.
“It’s going to take a collective effort,” Kustura said. “We just have to focus on the details.”
Credits:
Steve Woltmann, Mark Black