Pride rally falls short as Culver-Stockton takes match in five sets

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Beginning a stretch of nine-straight home matches, the Clarke University men's volleyball team fell short of win on Sunday as Culver-Stockton College earned a 3-2 win in the Kehl Center.

The Wildcats had their eyes on a sweep after taking the first two sets but CU forced the match to go five sets where eventually Culver-Stockton would regain their edge and pull out the win by set scores of 25-19, 25-23, 19-25, 24-26, and 15-10.

Both teams finished with similar attacking statistics as the Pride held a slight advantage in kills 69-61 and hitting percentage .235-.230 but Clarke gave up a few more points on errors with 30 attacking errors and 14 errors on serve compared to just 27 and four for CSC in the match.

Ashe Oxley led all players in the match in kills with 28 on 61 attempts to finish with a .295 hitting percentage while adding 12 digs for a double-double. The only other player in double figures for the Wildcats was Ashe's brother Akeel Oxley who finished with 14 kills and 13 digs for a double-double of his own.

For the Pride, Michael Jenkins (18), Stephen Lewnadowski (15), Tye Ojala (14), and Montez Thompson (12) all finished with double figures in kills as the last three all finished with hitting percentages over .275 in the match.

Erik Schmidt and Nick Palatine both had a busy day in the dig and assist category as Schmidt had a match-high 57 assists while adding 12 digs for a double-double and Palatine led the match with 22 digs and had a near double-double adding nine assists.

Up next for Clarke men's volleyball will be their first meeting of the season against Graceland University when the Yellowjackets visit the Kehl Center on Tuesday, Feb. 22 for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve.