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Pride fall in return to Heart action in three sets to William Penn

Pride fall in return to Heart action in three sets to William Penn
Box Score
March 17, 2026

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Playing their final home match of the month of March, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped a 3-0 final to William Penn University in the Kehl Center on Tuesday night.

Down a couple of starters for the first set of the night, the Pride finished at their largest deficit in that set at a 25-19 advantage for WPU before dropping a pair of 25-23 sets in the second and third despite outhitting the Statesmen in kills and hitting percentage in each of those two sets by six total kills and .080 in hitting percentage combined.

CU had slim late leads in the second and third sets, up 22-20 in the second before William Penn scored three-straight to take a 23-22 lead then the final two points after Clarke tied it at 23-23 then in the third set, it was a 18-17 Pride lead that quickly moved to a 21-18 Statesmen lead that got to the 23-23 score once again for a service error and attacking error by the home team to seal their fate.

The leader in kills for the match was William Penn's Ben Cemeno-Castillo who had 13 kills on 40 swings for a .225 hitting percentage while also adding a solo block and seven digs defensively while the only other player in the match to have over 10 kills was CU's Tanner May as the Pride senior finished with 11 kills on just 17 swings for a .529 hitting percentage while also being in on five block assists in the middle.

Trey Vescoso and Eduardo Hernandez were the offensive support behind May's 11 kills as they combined for 13 kills at the outside hitter position with Vescoso producing seven kills and Hernendez posting six while also adding eight digs.

Serve and serve reception played at least a minor role in the pair of minimum point margin sets as the Statesmen finished plus-seven in terms of adding points on serves with four less service errors and three more aces by the end of the night.

Clarke men's volleyball will get back on the road as they will start a stretch of four-straight away from Dubuque to finish off March starting with a Friday night, Mar. 20 matchup against Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan. for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve.