Pride fall in straight sets to No. 9 Park

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Facing their second-straight NAIA ranked opponent within the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University men's volleyball team put up another fight but fell by a 3-0 final to Park University on Friday night.

The Pirates won each set by a slimmer and slimmer margin as the match continued taking each set by scores of 25-18, 25-20, and 26-24 to clinch the sweep.

It wasn't a strong match on the attack for the Pride as they finished with a .124 team hitting percentage and only hit above .100 in one of the three sets with a .370 hitting percentage in the second set but they were outdone by the .560 from Park in that set.

CU senior Michael Jenkins led the match with 13 total kills as he had one of his strongest matches of the season with only four errors on 25 attempts for a .360 hitting percentage. The only other player with double figure kills was Joao Friedrich for the Pirates as he finished with 10 on 20 attempts with six errors.

The depth on the attack is where Park gained their advantage as the Pride's next best finisher in kills was a three-way tie between Tye Ojala, Montez Thompson, and Stephen Lewandowski as the trio each finished with five kills. For PU, Nicolas Tenius, had nine kills, Daniel Isernhagen had eight, and Felipe Guirau has six kills to support Friedrich's 10.\

Clarke men's volleyball will be back in action tomorrow afternoon for a 1:00 p.m. CT first serve against Missouri Valley College in the Kehl Center for Senior Day.