Former O’Fallon volleyball standout helps Carthage College capture national championship

As college freshmen, most men’s volleyball players simply hope to fit in and be on a competitive team.

O’Fallon Township High School product Easton Gavin experienced that and a lot more this winter as a freshman at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconisn.

Gavin, a 2020 OTHS graduate, played with the Firebirds and helped them win the Division III Men’s Volleyball National Championship the weekend of April 24 in Salem, Virginia.

Being on a national championship team in just his first year of college volleyball was an almost out-of-body experience for Gavin, who played Libero.

“It’s pretty surreal, and I’ve never been on a really winning team so to be on a team that’s winning that much and doing those things, it doesn’t really feel different. However, at the same time, it feels way different because everyone is so connected together and everyone’s working hard and everyone’s on the same page with everything,” he said.

Carthage, led by coach JW Kieckhefer, started the 2021 regular season with a 3-0 match win Feb. 2 at Lakeland University in Plymouth, Wisconsin, and then finished a perfect 18-0 regular season April 3 with a 3-0 match victory at North Park University in Chicago.

Then came the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament at home in Kenosha, and the Firebirds were dialed in for it.

Carthage took down fourth seed North Park in three sets in the semifinals April 8. The Firebirds followed that with a 3-0 match win over Augustana College on April 10 to claim the conference championship and advance to the Division III National Tournament.

“Park University was a little bit of a close one and wasn’t the win we wanted, but it was 3-0, so we’ll take it,” Gavin said. “The Augustana match we kind of got back on our high horse, and you could tell we were back where we wanted to be and ... going into the national championship, that win against Augustana gave us a lot of confidence.”

Twelve days later, the Firebirds made their first trip to the Division III National Tournament in Virginia and the environment was completely new for Gavin and his teammates, but Carthage was poised to take the next step toward greatness.

The 6-foot Gavin credited the team’s seniors with helping him and the other underclassmen appreciate the moment but not letting the moment overwhelm them.

“I’ve never been in that kind of situation (before), but all the seniors on our team really stepped up and kind of helped the team think about it as one game at a time. We had played a lot of other volleyball teams before so we thought of it as ‘it’s another game and another day,’” Gavin said.

Carthage defeated Messiah College on April 22 in the quarterfinals and Dominican University on April 23 in the semifinals to advance to the championship match at the Salem Civic Center in Virginia

Championship showdown

That put them in the championship match against Benedictine University from Lisle, Illinois.

After battling through five gut-wrenching sets, the Firebirds prevailed for a 3-2 win and, in the process, brought home the first athletic national championship in school history.

“We just played our game, and our coaches said don’t expect anything to be given to you and to go out and get it. We knew that we were better than any other team, and we just went out and did it,” Gavin said.

Gavin said he knew the team would be successful but a perfect season and winning the national crown were pleasant and unforeseen surprises.

“I knew that there was a good chance that we would (win the championship), and I knew that we had the ability to win it and knew we could go far (in the tournament), but I didn’t expect the tournament win,” he said.

Expectations to soar for Firebirds

Now that Carthage College men’s volleyball has won a national championship and the Firebirds have put the program on the map, Gavin knows the program’s expectations will be decidedly higher moving forward.

“That’s the one thing that coach (Kieckhefer) talked about ... even though we’ve done it once, now we’re going to be getting more and more kids. It makes us more marketable, but, at the same time, we’ve still got to have the mentality of we did it once but let’s go prove we can do it twice in a row,” Gavin said. ”Do it three times.”