Pride split Saturday matches in the Kehl Center

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Finishing up a busy pair of days at the Kehl Center, the Clarke University men's volleyball team earned a win and a loss in their pair of matches against Vitero University and Roosevelt University on Saturday.

The night's finale between the Pride and Lakers of Roosevelt was an action-packed, five-set match that saw four of the five sets go into extra points, including a fifth set that saw CU earn an 18-16 win to close out the night with a victory.

In that fifth set, Clarke had to defend match point from RU four times starting at 14-12 as a service error followed by a triple block from Stephen Lewandowski, Anthony Ramirez, and Daniel Bedoya tied the match at 14-14 before the teams would trade points to 16-16 as a Lakers' attacking error and a Justin Hernandez kill would give the Pride their 18-16 set victory.

CU would find themselves in the same situation they were a night prior against Morningside after earning set wins in the first and second by 27-25 and 25-15 scores before the Lakers would win the next two sets 27-25 in both to extend the match to the thrilling final set.

Clarke's attacking was powered by Ramirez, Bedoya, Hernandez, and Lewandowski as they all finished with double-digit kills as Ramirez had a strong 14-for-30 night with only three errors to finish at a .367 hitting percentage. Bedoya finished off a strong day with 13 kills and six total blocks, Hernandez had 12 kills, and Lewandowski, like Bedoya, used his swinging and blocking ability to finish with a high point total with 10 kills and nine total blocks.

Freshmen Kendall Killins and PJ Vaughan both set new career-highs in digs and assists respectively as they both finished in the 20s with Killins finishing at 21 digs and Vaughan recording 22 assists, behind Kainoa Gerard's team-high 29 assists on the opposite rotation as Vaughan.

In the day's opener against Viterbo, the V-Hawks and Pride would split the first two sets 25-21 for VU and 25-20 for CU but back-to-back set wins by the same 25-18 score would lead to a Viterbo victory.

Bedoya led Clarke in kills as the only member of the Pride in double figures, going 11-for-23 with only three errors as Tye Ojala and Zachary Barr added eight and seven kills respectively.

Viterbo didn't hold many significant advantages statistically but just edged out CU in most categories to pull off their four-set win on Clarke's home court.

Clarke men's volleyball will host one more match before a mini break in their schedule when they host Edgewood College on Tuesday, Feb. 6 for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve.