Pride fall in three to No. 15 Missouri Baptist to start final home weekend

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Starting off a Friday and Saturday set of three home matches, the Clarke University men's volleyball team was unable t find a rhythm against No. 15 Missouri Baptist University on Friday night in the Kehl Center.

The Pride lacked a consistent offensive attack to be able to keep up with the efficient attack from the Spartans as CU couldn't hit for a percentage higher than .080 in any set on the way to set scores of 25-21, 25-12, 25-19.

MBU finished with a .208 hitting percentage led by the outside hitting combo of Miljan Kastratovic and Austin Bonte who both his over .290 with Kastratovic leading the match at 14 kills and Bonte finishing at eight. 

Of the 75 points the Spartans scored in the match, 24 of them came from Clarke attacking errors and 12 came from service errors for those 36 points to top the 31 kills that Missouri Baptist finished with and lead to a CU -.051 hittnig percentage for the match.

Justin Hernandez and Stephen Lewandowski were the lone members of the Pride to finish with a hitting percentage over .100 as Hernandez ended the match with a team-high eight kills on 20 swings while Lewandowski had four kills on eight swings. Lewandowski was dominant on the block, finishing with four solo blocks and four block assists to finish just shy of a top-three performance for blocks in a three-set match.

Clarke mens volleyball will finish off their home slate of matches for the 2023 season as they host a tri-match as they will play University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy at 11:00 a.m. CT on Saturday morning followed by the night cap against St. Ambrose University at 5:00 p.m. CT for their Senior Day match.