Pride return home but drop 3-0 match to Missouri Valley
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Following a five-match week on the road, the Clarke University women's volleyball team returned to their home floor for the first time in two weeks when they hosted their first conference opponent in Missouri Valley College but dropped the match 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Starting off each of the three sets on the positive side of the score, the Pride would inevitably drop the three sets by final scores of 25-22, 25-16, and 25-23 to open Heart of America Athletic Conference play 0-1 as the Vikings would move to 1-1 after opening Heart play last night at Mount Mercy with a loss of their own.
In the first set, CU would produce an MVC attacking error and a Kortney Harms service ace to go up 2-0 and would maintain the score advantage through a 10-8 lead but the Vikings would go on a quick 3-0 run to lead 11-10 and never allow Clarke to do more than even the score for the reaminder of the set but that last set tie would only come at 11-11.
The second set would have an even better start for Clarke at 3-0 then eventually 5-1 but again, a Missouri Valley run after the Pride led 10-8 turned into a 12-10 MVC lead where they would then really pull away 21-13 before closing out their biggest set advantage with a 4-0 run behind two Juliana Oliveira kills and a Pride error sandwiched in between.
Continuing the trend, the Pride would once again start a set on a run, this time 4-0 to start the third and again lead 5-1 and 10-8, then bucking the trend slightly to lead 11-8 but another 4-0 run from the Vikings would give them a 12-11 lead and force a CU timeout.
Clarke would stay within two points for most of the third up until back-to-back scoring plays from Missouri Valley made it 23-19 but two Viking errors and a kill from Harms would make it 23-22 but an Oliveira kill put MVC to match point and they would seal the deal with a block to avoid extra points and win by the minimum at 25-23.
Harms produced her second triple-double of the season with a team-high 10 kills and a .296 hitting percentage while also leading the team with 13 assists and three aces then would round out the triple-double with 10 digs.
Oliveira led all players in the match with 12 kills and produced a .321 hitting percentage from the outside while Olivia Randolph had nine kills and middle Jisell Chumacero had six kills and three block assists while producing a .375 hitting percentage.
Keely Colyer and Amelia Driver were the supporting offense for Clarke at nine and six kills respectively but no one else in the lineup had more than three kills over the three sets while Jayden Knox led CU with 13 digs and Jenna Lewis was close behind with 12 digs in just two sets played in the three-set match.
Pride women's volleyball will return to non-conference action when they host Emmaus University at the Kehl Center on Tuesday, Sept. 9 for a scheduled 7:30 p.m. CT first serve against the fellow Dubuque school.