Pride fall in three to No. 1 Grand View

DES MOINES, Iowa - Hitting the road for their first match away from the Kehl Center in the 2023 season, the Clarke University men's volleyball team only had the No.1 team in the NAIA preseason rankings to go up against as they fell 3-0 to Grand View University.

The Vikings showed their merit in the 25-11, 25-11, 25-18 sweep as they finished with a team hitting percentage over .500 at .538 while only committing seven errors on the attack all match including an impressive 19 kills to only one error in the second set where they hit .750.

CU was able to improve their hitting efficiency as the match progressed each set but just couldn't find a grove missing starting setter Erik Schmidt as no attacking player for the Pride finished with more than Tye Ojala's five kills on the night. Zachary Barr had a strong, 4-for-7 (.571) match on the attack but just couldn't get enough opportunities in total for Clarke by the end of the match.

Grand View spread the ball around with six different players finishing with four or more kills led by Daniel Wong's nine kills on 12 swings with only one error for a .667 hitting percentage.

The Pride will stay on the road for the remainder of the week as they will take a weekend trip to St. Louis, Mo. to take on Missouri Baptist University and University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy this Friday and Saturday respectively as Friday night's match is slated to start at 7:00 p.m. CT.