Pride drop Heart opener in three sets to Grand View

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Following a full week off of competition after their best start in six seasons, the Clarke University Pride couldn't get back to their early winning ways in a 3-0 loss to Grand View University in the Kehl Center on Tuesday night.

All three sets remained close through about the halfway point of the set before the Vikings went on runs going from up 14-12 to 19-12 in the first on their way to a 25-18 win, taking a 20-20 second set to win 25-21, then going from up 19-18 to win the third and final set 25-19.

As a team, Grand View hit for a .323 percentage compared to CU's .188, with GVU's percentage largely lifted by a strong individual performance from Andre Lucas Alves Leandro who finished the match with 24 kills on 35 swings with just four errors to hit .571, to finish with over 33 percent of the attempts on the team and exactly half of the kills.

For the Pride, Tanner May led the team with eight kills on 13 swings with no errors for a .615 hitting percentage with a solo block and block assist for 9.5 points, ahead of Trey Vescoso's 7.5-point night where he had four kills, three block assists, and two aces with Lachlan Donnelly finishing at six kills and two block assists, then Dustin Kuner had four kills and five block assists.

Between the two primary setters for each team, Guilherme Domdei Goedert of the Vikings had a 40-assist, 11-dig double-double, with his assist total benefitting greatly from the outstanding game by Alves Leandro while Clarke's Benjamin Reiser had a 22-assist performance with five digs, two kills, and a block assist over the three sets.

Clarke men's volleyball will get back on the road for their next match when they travel to Lamoni, Iowa to continue Heart play against Graceland University on Saturday, Feb. 14 with a scheduled 7:00 p.m. CT first serve between the Pride and Yellowjackets.