Pride sweep Emmaus with pair of dominant set performances

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Taking a dip into the non-conference waters after their Heart opener last Saturday, the Clarke University women's volleyball team earned a 3-0 win over city rival Emmaus University on Tuesday night.

The Pride were able to cruise to comfortable wins in the bread sets by 25-10 and 25-7 scores in the first and third while the second set was a tight, extra points, afair that saw the home team come from behind and earn a 26-24 set win despite having a worse hitting percentage in the set.

As a team, Clarke would hit for a .209 hitting percentage with percentages over .300 int he first and third but their 12 errors in the second set lowered their hitting percentage in that set to .048 compared to the Eagles hitting .143 for their only positive set in the match.

Spreading the ball around between the attacking depth in the Pride lineup, four players had six kills exactly with sophomore middle blocker Kaelyn Minich leading the match with seven kills on 14 swings with two errors for a .357 hitting percentage as she added one block assist for a 7.5-point night.

The six members of the Clarke attack that had six kills were all juniors in Keely Colyer, Amelia Driver, Kortney Harms, and Kelsey NeCollins as NeCollins led the team in hitting percentage with .364, Harms led the team with 13 assists and six aces, Driver added five aces herself, and Colyer was the team-leader with eight digs on the night while also adding 10 assists.

As a team, CU finished the match with 16 aces, their most in a match since producing 18 aces in their 2022 season open against Roosevelt on Aug. 20 and their most in a three-set contest since the 2021 season when they had 20 aces against Finlandia almost four years to the exact date when they did that on Sept. 10, 2021.

The Pride back row players all had strong matches with defensive subs Ariana Rodriguez, Olivia LaCour, Madison Peck and Emma Shea-Wopinek producing six, four, one, and three digs respectively with Shea-Wopinek adding two kills as she moved to full rotation in the third set with Jenna Lewis and Jaxcyn Berntgen putting up three and two assists respectively subbing in at setter late in the third as well.

Clarke women's volleyball will hit the road as they return to Heart of America Athletic Conference play when they travel to NAIA No. 11 Missouri Baptist University for a Friday night match on Sept. 12 in St. Louis for a scheduled 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled match.