PURCHASE, NY - During the 13-year history of Purchase College men's volleyball in the Skyline Conference, only once has a player recorded 300 kills or more in a single season.
Not only did this individual achieve the feat with ease, he crushed it and in turn became the focus of today's #STATurday series.
Who is it you ask?
Well, that would be
Kevin Carges '17 of course, an attacker who enjoyed a legendary career at Purchase College.
Carges (Brockport, NY) started his journey in 2014, where he found instant success to the tune of 238 kills as a freshman. With that total, he finished second on the team just behind
Kevon Kareem Bruce '14, who tallied 251 kills as a senior.
Following the graduation of Bruce, the team turned to Carges to lead the offense. And lead he did.
For the 2015 season, Carges played like a man possessed, putting up the monumental and record-setting kill count of 370 kills in just 27 games. To put into context just how great he was,
Riley Damerell '17, a fantastic hitter in his own right, finished with the second-most kills that year with just 160.
Throughout the season, Carges led the Panthers or tied for the team lead in kills 25 times. The two times he didn't finish with the most — he finished second.
Carges also recorded two separate games of 33 kills over the course of 2015, with the first coming in February during a five-set, come-from-behind win over CCNY. After Purchase dropped the first two sets, Carges and the Panthers rallied to win the final three, 25-21, 32-30 and 15-11 to claim the victory.
While that win might have been the more epic of the two, it was actually Carges' second 33-kill game of the year that was most impressive, as he recorded that total in just
four sets this time. Carges carried Purchase over Skyline Conference rival, Yeshiva University, by the total of 25-21, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-18 in late March 2015.
Following the season, the Brockport native's efforts were recognized by the Skyline Conference, as he was named to the All-Skyline Conference First Team.
With the 2015 campaign complete, Carges etched his legacy into the Purchase College record books forever. While he was never able to cross the 300-kill threshold again during the final two years of his career, his masterful season will always live on.
Plus, Carges actually got really close to repeating his success as a senior, finishing just short with 297 kills.
Sadly, the Panthers only played 23 games in his final year, compared to the 27 they played in 2015. If Carges and the Panthers had played at least one more game that year, he almost certainly would have achieved just the second 300-kill season in Purchase history.
Even with his near miss in 2017, Carges still owns the two best kill totals in the program's Skyline history by a vast margin, as the third-highest total of all-time is 255 kills.
In fact, since Carges graduated in 2017, the only player to even cross the 200-kill mark was
Jeremiah Huntt (Jr/Bronx, NY) in 2019 with 207 kills.
With such high totals compared to his competition, it is certainly possible that
Kevin Carges remains a top the all-time list for many years to come. And with how dominant of hitter he was during his Purchase tenure, he definitely deserves to stand alone atop the 300-kill mountain.
