Pride first set win can't carry on in 3-1 loss to Missouri Baptist

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Closing out another home weekend within the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped a four-set match to Missouri Baptist University on Saturday afternoon in the Kehl Center.

All four sets seemed to have a similar progression in the early going and that was the Pride jumping out to quick leads before the Spartans rallied to jump back in front, but in the first set it was the home team that was able to get back in front to pull out a 25-21 set win but then MBU was able to grow larger leads in the next three sets to win the second, third, and fourth by scores of 25-14, 25-22, and 25-21.

A key to the turnaround for Missouri Baptist was an uptick in their offensive output, primarily led by the match's leader in kills of Isaac Allgeyer, who finished the first set without a kill and had three errors, but went the next three sets to produce 16 kills and just five errors for a .267 hitting percentage.

That boost just individually from Allgeyer also helped the Spartans go from just nine kills and a .130 hitting percentage in the first set to have 13 or more kills in each of the following three sets and hitting percentage of .478 in the second, .300 in the third, and .242 in the fourth as Clarke went from a 12-kill first set that had a .214 hitting percentage to nothing higher than a .188 and 11 kills in any set over the rest of the match.

The Pride's final individual numbers saw middle Tanner May lead the team with 12 kills on 25 swings with four total blocks while Nolan Amdur had 10 kills and a team-high tying seven digs and Trey Vescoso led the team with 16 points scored behind his nine kills, five aces, and four block assists, teaming up with either May or Kyle Scott, who finished with five block assists as the middle opposite of May.

Roudning out the CU lineup on the day, Eduardo Hernandez had seven kills of his own, setter Benjamin Reiser had 35 assists, six digs, three kills, and three block assists, then libero Jason Romero had a seven-dig performance over the four sets.

Allgeyer's primary offensive support came from a duo of Nikos Faoutas, who had 14 kills on 29 swings, and Johnathan Kreke producing 10 kills while setter Josh Kaemmerer led the match with 46 assists and libero cruse Aea had 21 digs for the Spartans.

Clarke men's volleyball will spend their spring break playing four matches on the week starting when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday, Mar. 10 for their first Heart rematch of the season when they face Grand View University for at 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve between the Pride and Vikings.