Strong start not enough as Pride fall to Mount Mercy 3-2

DUBUQUE, Iowa - For the final match at the Kehl Center of the 2022 season, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped their second match of the season to Mount Mercy University on Tuesday night.

The Pride earned the set wins in the first two sets to lead 2-0 before MMU was able to rally back to win the final three sets as the set scores finished 22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-20, and 15-11 in favor of the Mustangs.

The key for Mount Mercy's comeback began on the attack as they hit for .000 and .133 in the first two sets but then finished with .360, .238, and .312 hitting percentages in the final three sets, which all were higher marks than CU's team hitting percentages in those sets.

For MMU, the duo of Lucas Rebula and Evan Gaskill carried the attacking load as Rebula finished with a match-high 26 kills and Gaskill had 17 kills with three aces.

On the opposite side, Clarke's trio of Michael Jenkins (17), Montez Thompson (16), and Stephen Lewandowski (12) finished with just two kills more than the Mustangs' duo as Thompson finished a dig shy of a double-double, Lewandowski was in on six blocks and Jenkins added an ace and seven digs.

Nick Palatine, Erik Schmidt, and Tye Ojala all had double-digit digs led by Palatine's 16 digs as Schmidt had 11 digs with his 47 assists for a double-double, and Ojala had 10 digs with seven kills.

Clarke will finish their season with five-straight road matches including a double-header set of matches against Graceland University this Friday in Lamoni, Iowa before heading to Parkville, Mo. for a rematch against Park University on Saturday.