Middles dominate in Pride season-opening win over Viterbo

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Delaying the start of their 2026 saeson after postponing their initially scheduled opener last week, the Clarke University men's volleyball team earned a 3-2 home win at the Kehl Center over Viterbo University on Tuesday night.

A thrilling back-and-forth affair saw the Pride pull away late in the first set to a 25-21 with the set tied as late as 20-20, then came a second set where Viterbo led 23-15 before CU fought all the way back to force extra points from down 24-21 to tie it at 24-24 before the V-Hawks still pulled out the set victory at 28-26.

The third and fourth sets also were split in somewhat more comfortable fashion where a couple of mid-set runs for VU gave them a lead that allowed for another mini-comeback from Clarke to not extend the match past 25-23 then the Pride would put their foot down in a must-win fourth set, leading by as many as nine points at multiple points to cruise to a 25-16 win and set up a winner-take-all fifth set.

In that fifth set, a 5-1 start for Clarke wouldn't lead to an easy route throughout the entire set as the V-Hawks would tie the set up at 9-9 but CU answered with a 5-0 run, setting up match point that would eventually be scored on a hectic rally by a Trey Vescoso kill to make the Pride 1-0 for the first time since 2022 at a 15-10 final set win.

The win is also the first career collegiate head coaching victory for Marvin Fong, who led the Pride for his first match since taking over the job in the 2025 offseason.

CU's scoring was carried by a four-man group that included middle blocker tandem of senior Tanner May and freshman Dustin Kuner along with outsides Lachlan Donnelly and Vescoso as all four had double digit kills and a hitting percentage over .240.

May and Kuner in the middle were particularly dominant, combining for 29 kills on 47 total attacks for a .511 hitting percentage with May having the best match of his Clarke career with a career-high 17 kills on 20 attempts with only one error for an .800 hitting percentage while adding four total blocks, one solo and three assists, a service ace, and an assist while Kuner had 12 kills and five block assists for a 14.5-point night along with his .296 hitting percentage.

Donnelly had 13 kills in his first match with the Pride while producing seven digs, five aces, two assists, and two block assists and Vescoso tied his career-high with 10 kills on 25 swings for a .280 hitting percentage as he also had five aces while producing four digs and two block assists.

Another strong start to a season came from junior setter Benjamin Reiser, who produced 42 assists as well as five digs and two aces with his assist total breaking 40 for just the second time in his career coming up five short of his best of 47 that he set in another five set win a season ago against Augustana on Mar. 22, 2025.

Jason Romero handled the libero duties to a 13-dig performance, just the second match where he had double digit digs to top his previous career-high of 10 that he set in a five set win against St. Ambrose last season on Mar. 15, 2025.

Clarke men's volleyball will hit the road for a three-match weekend in St. Mary of the Woods, Ind. where they will play once on Friday, Jan. 30 before two more on Saturday, Jan. 31 starting with Friday night's neutral court matchup against Park University Gilbert for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening serve at the Showdown in the Woods Invitational.