Pride return to action with 3-0 loss to No. 5 Grand View in Heart opener
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Returning to game action for the first time since Feb. 6, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped a three-set match to NAIA ranked No. 5 Grand View University on Tuesday night in the Kehl Center.
The Vikings came out firing on all cylinders, opening the match with a 25-13 set one victory as the Pride rallied to closer set two and three margins but couldn't break through to avoid their first sweep defeat of the season with 25-17 and 25-22 scores in the last two sets respectively.
In the opening set, GVU would jump out 4-0 quickly before extending their lead to 10 points by the time CU got to five points at 15-5 as they basically maintained that deficit throughout the rest of the match, extending it to as many as 13 before closing out the 12-point set win.
Overall, efficiency on the attack told most of the story as Grand View finished the match hitting .344 as a team led by a 14-for-19 effort from Daniel Galili as he only had two errors for a .632 hitting percentage as Daniel Wong and Leonardo Annichini both had eight kills each with Wong finishing at a .600 hitting percentage and Annichini finishing at .312.
Clarke finished in the negative for their hitting percentage as they had 19 errors and 18 kills on 62 attempts for a -.016 as they also missed on 12 serves to help give Grand View 31 of the 75 points scored in the match.
The kills leader for the Pride was Tye Ojala as he finished 6-for-14 with three errors for a .214 hitting percentage as the trio of Timothy Meyer (2), Michael Pettke (2), and Curtney Germaine (3) all came in for the third set to help swing the tides to combine for seven of the team's other 12 kills that weren't produced by Ojala.
Pride men's volleyball will be back to regular action as they'll hit the road for a pair of matches on the weekend starting with a Friday night match against Graceland University for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve against the Yellowjacklets in Lamoni, Iowa.