Pride split pair of matches in final day of Showdown in the Woods Invitational

ST. MARY OF THE WOODS, Ind. - Looking to continue their hot start to the 2026 season, the Clarke University men's volleyball team extending that season-opening winning streak to three before getting cut down in a split of their two matches on Saturday against Calumet College of St. Joseph and St. Mary of the Woods College in the Showdown in the Woods Invitational.

In their first match against CCSJ, the Pride would roll to a sweep win over the Crimson Wave with no set finishing within less than five points in a 25-18, 25-20, and 25-17 final set score line to the 3-0 win behind a team hitting percentage of .288, after matching .375 sets in the second and third to improve on a six-error first.

Freshman outside hitter Lachlan Donnelly led the match in both kills and digs with nine apiece, narrowly missing out on his first CU double-double as the Dungarvan, Ireland native hit for a .375 percentage while adding an assist and a service ace in the win.

Clarke setter Benjamin Reiser produced in a variety of ways, leading the match with 22 assists while also producing five digs, four kills, and a solo block to continue his strong start to 2026 as he was able to spread the ball around to seven different members of the Pride lineup other than he and Donnelly to have at least a kill in the match.

Those seven included a 6-for-10 (.500) match from Tanner May, a 5-for-8 (.500) performance from Dustin Kuner, a 4-for-14 (.000) finish for Trey Vescoso, three kills from Nolan Amdur, and one kill apiece from the trio of Michael Pettke, Malik Hosain, and Micah Dancy.

Rounding out the lineup for the Pride against Calumet included defensive performances of three digs from Eduardo Hernandez, two digs from Jason Romero, one dig from DJ Wilson, and a solo block by Kyle Scott in a match that allowed head coach Marvin Fong to utilize the depth of his roster for the sweep win.

Things did not fair as well for Clarke in the true road match as part of the two-day tournament with the Pomeroys earning their own sweep win to close things out on Saturday in three fairly close sets of 25-21. 25-20, and 25-21 in favor of the home team.

The first set was knotted up at 15-15 before SMWC went on a 5-0 run to force a CU timeout at 20-15 as they would extend that lead to six points at 22-16 and never really look back to close things out at 25-21 as a similar stretch earlier in the second set put the Pomeroys up 12-6 and the third set got St. Mary of the Woods up six even earlier than that at 8-2 with all three leads never relinquished.

Errors was the main problem for the Pride in their weekend finale as they combined between attacking and service errors to give SMWC 44 points, 15 of which were on blocks, just from those plays alone of the 75 points the Pomeroys were awarded in the entirety of the match.

Vescoso and Kuner led the team with eight kills apiece, but both finished at a .125 hitting percentage after committing five and six attacking errors respectively while May had a 5-for-10 match with three aces and a solo block.

Reiser had more assists in the finale at 28 while also putting up eight digs and a kill while Romero had a seven-dig performance as that pair combined for 15 of the team's 25 digs on the night.

Pride men's volleyball will have a week off from matches to recuperate from their four-match week to start off the season as they'll get back to action with their first Heart of America Athletic Conference match on Tuesday, Feb. 10 when they host Grand View University in the Kehl Center for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve.