Pride earn first Heart win of 2026 in four sets at Graceland
LAMONI, Iowa - Wrapping up their first week in Heart of America Athletic Conference play, the Clarke University men's volleyball team posted a 3-1 road victory at Graceland University on Saturday night.
Three of the four sets came down to the minimum with two of those going into extra points as the Pride and Yellowjackets split the first two at 26-24 each way, first for CU then for GU in the second, before Clarke ran away in the third 25-16 and closed out another tight one at 25-23 in the fourth to clinch the match.
In each of those first two sets, the team that got to 24 points first at a 24-23 lead would go on to lose the set as Graceland got to 24 in the first before committing a service error, getting aced by Eduardo Hernandez then committing an attacking error for set point, then in the second it was Clarke that earned their 24-23 lead before an Andrew Cziep solo block then back-to-back CU attacking errors.
The third set was back-and-forth over the early stages all the way to a 14-12 Pride lead before they finished the set on an 11-4 run with Hernandez producing three points between an ace and the final two kills of the set, two kills apiece from Tanner May and Micah Dancy, then a kill apiece by Trey Vescoso and Michael Pettke.
Leading early in the fourth set by seven points at 14-7, Clarke would have to stave off a Yellowjacket comeback to tie the score at 17-17 as the two teams traded points back and forth all the way to 23-23 before a May kill put CU at match point for another attacking error to close out a set and give the Pride their 3-1 match win.
May led the match with 16 kills on 29 swings for a .379 hitting percentage as he added three solo blocks and a block assist for a 19.5-point night while Dancy and Vescoso each added eight kills apiece then Hernandez had six kills and 10 digs with Noah Whalen and Nolan Amdur also adding six kills apiece.
Setter Benjamin Reiser came two digs shy of a double-double with 38 assists and eight digs while adding two kills with libero Jason Romero producing a new career-high for digs in a match with 21, by far eclipsing his previous career-high of 15 set earlier this season.
Clarke men's volleyball will stay on the road for all three of their matches next week, first when they travel to Oskaloosa, Iowa for a Tuesday night match at William Penn University on Feb. 17 with a scheduled first serve of 7:00 p.m. CT.