Pride suffer loss to St. Ambrose in 2025 home opener

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Following their four-match opening weekend that was spent all away from Dubuque, the Clarke University men's volleyball team got back into their home gym of the Kehl Center in a Friday night matchup against St. Ambrose University but were unable to pull out a victory in a 3-0 final.

Early rotation issues would create a bit of chaos for the Pride in the first set leading to a 25-14 loss before dropping a tight 25-23 second set then a lack of offensive consistency in the third would lead to another 25-14 set loss to close out the match.

The Fighting Bees would produce matching .259 hitting percentages in the second and third set as CU would outdo them in the second hitting .357 producing a comeback from down 20-17 late in the set but they could never take a lead with SAU scoring three of the final four points of the set after the score was tied 22-22.

In the third, an 8-8 set score early would turn into a 17-11 St. Ambrose lead as they would go four-straight rotations getting at least back-to-back points to grow their lead before closing out the set on a five-point run behind the serve of setter Anthony Anderson, who closed out the night with back-to-back aces.

Anderson finished the night with 29 assists, four digs, two kills, a block assist, and a solo block playing full rotation for the Fighting Bees while Pedro Zang led all players in the match with 11 kills but Anderson spread the ball around plenty with four other members of the SAU team finishing with four or more kills.

Justin Hernandez led the Pride with nine kills on 33 swings while Anthony Ramirez had six, Zachary Barr and Eduardo Hernandez had three apiece, and Tanner May added two, mostly from Benjamin Reiser who would finish with 21 assists on the night.

Clarke men's volleyball will continue a lengthy homestand that started on Friday that will include seven-straight matches in the Kehl Center following tonight's starting with a Tuesday night, Feb. 11 matchup against Grand View University to start Heart of America Athletic Conference play with a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve.