Pride play tight with Maryville but fall 3-0 to finish St. Louis trip
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Wrapping up a road trip of three matches in four days, the Clarke University men's volleyball team were unable to pull out a win in non-conference play against NCAA DI foe Maryville University on Monday afternoon.
The Pride switched up their on-court configuration slightly, moving away from a 6-2 rotation style of two setters always playing out of the back row to one setter playing the full rotation as PJ Vaughan got the call in that role, finishing with a new career-high of 31 assists for his second 30-assist match in the last three as he finished with 30 against UHSP in a five-set contest last Friday.
Another result of the style switch would see the entirety of the CU starting lineup play the full match as middle blockers Stephen Lewandowski and Zachary Barr only came out on libero substitutions on the back row for Kendall Killins, Tye Ojala and Benen Flores played the outside hitter positions opposite of each other's rotation, and Justin Hernandez manned the right side of the attack for the full rotations.
That change-up saw Clarke and Maryville play close opening sets as the Saints earned a 30-28 first set win before closing out the second 25-22, then finishing the match with a 25-19 third set with Clarke holding a set point opportunity in the first at 24-23 with MU scoring the next two points before the teams traded points until the final two points going to Maryville.
MU's Makai Scott and Luke Van Handel along with Hernandez for the Pride were the only players in the entire match in double figures for kills as Scott led all players with 16 kills on 29 swings for a .345 hitting percentage with Van Handel finishign 10-for-20 at a .350 hitting percentage then Hernandez led CU with 12 kills and a match-high .409 hitting percentage for anyone who took over six swings.
Clarke men's volleyball will stay in non-conference for one more match during CU's spring break as they'll travel to Elgin, Ill. to face off with an NAIA foe in Judson University for a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled first serve on Mar. 14 against the Eagles.