Pride take opening set but fall in four at Peru State

Pride take opening set but fall in four at Peru State
Box Score
September 28, 2024

PERU, Neb. - In the middle of their second of three-straight weekends on the road, the Clarke University women's volleyball team closed out this road trip with a 3-1 defeat to Peru State College on Saturday afternoon.

The Pride were able to take the opening set by a 25-22 score but lost a bit of momentum in the three ensuing sets dropping them by scores of 25-19, 25-20, and 25-17 as mid-to-late set runs from the Bobcats helped carry PSC to the home victory.

In the second, Peru State took an 8-7 lead to 15-8 and eventually 22-14 behind a pair of runs, in the third, they would go from up 17-15 to up 22-15, then in the fourth, the Bobcats would score the final eight points of the match to go from a 17-17 tie to win the set 25-17.

Service recption was a bit of an issue for CU as the Bobcats finished with 12 aces, tying for the most against the Pride this season, but PSC couldn't take full advantage of those 12 aces, finishing the match with less net points on the serve to the Pride as Clarke finished with five aces and only two errors on the serve to be plus-three compared to Peru State's even margin.

Peru State's attack finished with a more efficient effort at a .263 team hitting percentage led by the trio of attackers with double digit kills with Eden Moore finishing at 12 kills while Kalolaine Pasikala and Raevyn Russel each adding 11 kills while all three had no more than three errors to finish with hitting percentage at .267 or better.

Clarke sophomores Ariana Rodriguez and Maya Watters continued their strong play on the weekend as Rodriguez backed up a career-high 19 dig performance as the starting libero on Friday with a repeat performance on Saturday to set a new career-high of 20 digs on Saturday while Watters led the match in kills with 16 on 37 swings and a .270 hitting percentage.

Keely Colyer also had a double-digit kill performance with 10 on the day for her most since Aug. 31 and Olivia LaCour finished with a new career-high in digs herself, finishing with 14 digs for the first match in the junior's career at Clarke with double digit digs in a match.

Clarke women's volleyball will have a similar schedule next week as they did this week, starting their week with a Tuesday night home match against Mount Mercy University in the Kehl Center for a 7:00 p.m. CT first serve.