Trio of Pride career highs and first set win not enough in loss to Judson

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Starting a stretch of three days with a match, the Clarke University men's volleyball team opened that stretch on Thursday evening with a 3-1 loss in non-conference action to Judson University.

The Pride got off to a roaring start with a 25-17 win in the first set behind a .370 team hitting percentage, producing 15 kills on 27 attempts with five errors as seven of those 15 kills came off of the left hand of senior Justin Hernandez.

Hernandez would lead all players in the match with a new career-high for the Clinton, Utah native as he had 20 kills for the first time in his four-year career while hitting .429 on 35 attempts while adding six digs and an ace on the night.

Judson would take a step forward offensively from that point on and had three-straight sets of 13, 13, and 14 kills as a team while hitting at least better than .220 while CU finished with a hitting percentage lower than .200 in those sets as the Eagles would win each of those sets 25-20, 25-22, 25-21 to win the match.

Two other members of the Pride had career nights beside Hernandez as middle Tanner May had his Clarke career-high in kills with 10 while adding a solo block and block assist and setter Benjamin Reiser was able to produce 38 assists for the sophomore to set a new career-high in the primary setting stat.

For the Eagles, they would also have two front row players at double digit kills led by Elijah Gregg's 13 while Oracio Martinez had 11 kills on 19 swings without a single error for a .579 hitting percentage to combine for 24 of setter Elijah Wrobel's 41 assists.

Clarke men's volleyball will jump back into Heart of America Athletic Conference play on Friday night when they welcome Ottawa University for another 7:00 p.m. CT first serve in the Kehl Center as they near the end of their eight-match homestand.