Pride women's volleyball falls in straight sets to William Penn

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Entering the final two weeks stretch of the regular season, the Clarke University women's volleyball team dropped their return trip home against William Penn 3-0 Tuesday night at the Kehl Center.

A bit of revenge for the Statesmen who fell to the Pride in Oskaloosa, Iowa on Sept. 28 by the same score of 3-0, in Dubuque William Penn earned set wins by scores of 25-20, 25-22, and 25-19. Clarke was the first team to the 15-point mark in each set, but WPU was able to turn the tides right at that point in each set to be the first team to the 20-point mark and pull away for each set win.

The attacking numbers favored William Penn as they finished the match with a .182 team hitting percentage compared to -.014 for CU by the time the match ended. The Pride were unable to hit above the .100 mark in any of the three sets with double digit errors in each set compared to nine, four, and five errors from the Statesmen in each of the three sets.

WPU's defense played a large part in Clarke's offense struggling as they finished with eight blocks and 62 digs as the back row effort was led by the Statesmen libero Rebekah Eaves as she finished the match weith 21 of the team's 62 digs.

Amber Cooksley and Kali Milder had strong, double-digit dig nights on the back row with 13 and 10 digs respectively as Cooksley also finished with the team-high in nine kills in the match.

The Pride will stay at home for one more match this Friday against Evangel University at the Kehl Center for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve.