Pride mid-match momentum not enough as they fall 3-1 to William Penn

DUBUQUE, Iowa - A strong second set wasn't enough to carry the Clarke University women's volleyball team as they would eventually fall to William Penn University 3-1 on Tuesday night.

After dropping the opening set 25-20, Clarke would rattle off a strong 25-16 second set win but dropped a tightly contested third set 25-23 before falling in the fourth set 25-20 to close out the win for the Statesmen.

The third set was up for grabs as neither team led by more than three points at any point in that set but WPU's ability to close out the set by scoring four of the final five points after tying the score at 21-21 helped them get that important two-point lead at 24-22 before closeing it out 25-23.

William Penn's attack was balanced with four members of the Statesmen finishing with nine or more kills led by the 11 from Riley Hungate as Corrin Lepper, Kaya Caprini, and Katelynn Wissman all had nine kills each.

The Pride ran a majority of their offense through Jessica Schaad and Rachel Haubert as the outside hitting combo finished with 32 kills on 90 attempts with only five errors each. Haubert finished with a double-double adding a team-high 15 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.

Maddy Melvin added nine kills on 27 attempts in just three sets played from the right side as Victoria Patnaude and Lordiss Burton combined for 10 kills on 29 swings with Patnaude finishing with only one error on 16 attempts for a .312 hitting percentage.

Clarke women's volleyball will go back on the road for the second-straight weekend road trip as they will prepare to face Peru State on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. CT followed by a trip to Graceland at 4:00 p.m. CT on Saturday.