Hot start not enough for Pride in 3-1 loss to No. 3 Missouri Valley

MARSHALL, Mo. - Beginning their final stretch of the 2025 regular season on the road at a top five NAIA team, the Clarke University men's volleyball team fell 3-1 to No. 3 Missouri Valley College on Friday night.

Clarke got off to a strong start on their way to a 25-19 opening set win where they had 13 kill and just two errors on 25 total attacks for a .440 hitting percentage in the set compared to .250 for the Vikings as they had more kills with 14 but seven attack errors and three service errors to produce 10 points for CU.

The big runs for the Pride in the opening set came from a 4-0 start to the match, then going from a 19-18 lead to finishing the set scoring six of the final seven points to take that early lead in the match.

Unfortunately for CU, they couldn't find similar success in the following sets, only producing 19 kills over the second, third, and fourth sets combined and hitting no better than .111 as a team in those sets for MVC to win the sets 25-13, 25-20, and 25-20.

Three members of the Vikings attack finished with double digit kills led by Davi Azevedo's 13 kills on a .391 hitting percentage while Joao Tavarez had 12 kills on just 18 swings then Samuel Essilfie had 10 kills and a .211 hitting percentage.

Clarke's Justin Hernandez was the only member of the Pride attack in double figures for kills as he had 10 while adding seven digs and five block assists while Tanner May had eight kills on just 12 swings for a .583 and Anthony Ramirez had six kills and three total blocks.

CU men's volleyball will stay in Missouri for they next match on Saturday afternoon when they head back east to Canton, Mo. for a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening serve against Culver-Stockton College.