Pride shake off rough start for 3-1 win over Edgewood

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Closing out their first significant homestand of the 2024 schedule, the Clarke University men's volleyball team earned their second-straight victory by a 3-1 final over Edgewood College on Tuesday night.

In a match that didn't get off on the right foot for the Pride, they were able to win three-straight sets by scores of 25-17, 25-16, and 25-22 after dropping the opening set 25-20 to the Eagles where Edgewood used a mid-set 7-0 run to go from down 9-6 to up 13-9 to then never trail for the rest of that set, also aided by a 4-0 run after CU closed the gap back to one point at 14-13.

Looking to get back on track, Clarke opened on a 5-0 run in the second set and never let their foot off the gas to eventually win by eight points and did more of the same in the third with the big push coming mid-set, taking a 14-12 lead and expanding it to 19-12 thanks to another 5-0 ru.

The fourth set was more tightly contested before Edgewood went on their own 5-0 run to take a 17-13 lead that would extend to a 21-15 lead before Clarke would go on to score 10 of the final 11 points on the serves of Anton Alarcon and Kendall Killins to close out the match with the narrow three-pont victory in set four.

The Pride attack, that had both hit or miss moments throughout, was led by a pair of strongly efficient nights from middle Zachary Barr and Justin Hernandez as Hernandez led the way with 13 kills on 20 swings with only one error for a .600 hitting percentage as Barr wasn't far behind with 11 kills on 18 attempts, also with only one error for a .556 hitting percentage as the duo combined for over half of the CU 47 team kills.

The setting combination of PJ Vaughan (21) and Kainoa Gerard (17) combined for 38 of the team's 44 assists while Gerard finished with eight digs and two service aces and Vaughan had seven digs to end his match. Killins led a back row defensive effort that saw the Pride finish with 42 digs to Edgewood's 37 as Killins had a team-high nine while Tye Ojala added eight of his own and Timothy Meyer also had five over four sets.

Clarke men's volleyball will be away from game action for an extended period when they start Heart of America Athletic Conference action on Tuesday, Feb. 20 as they'll host Grand View University for a 7:00 p.m. CT first serve between the Pride and Vikings.