Whalen's double-double not enough in Pride's four set loss at Augstana

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. - Playing their second-straight non-conference match, the Clarke University men's volleyball team fell 3-1 to Augustana College on Tuesday night by set scores of 26-24, 25-15, 19-25, 25-20 in favor of the Vikings.

In every set, the winning team produced 13 or more kills while the team that dropped the set had produced hitting percentages under .200 until the fourth set when the Pride hung with AC offensively but still dropped the final set by five points as the Vikings finished with a .230 hitting percentage as a team while CU hit .174.

Clarke's attack was manly a two-man effort of a match-high 13 kills from middle Tanner May as he only had one error on the attack for a .571 hitting percentage on the night while adding four total blocks for 15.5 points as his backup came from sophomore Noah Whalen, who produced career-highs in both kills and digs with 10 and 13 for his first career double-double as the outside hitter did struggle on the serve, both offensively and defensively, combining for nine service and reception errors over the four sets.

On the back row for CU behind Whalen's 13 digs on Tuesday, Nolan Amdur had eight digs to go with his six kills, Micah Dancy finished with seven, setter Benjamin Reiser had six digs to go along with his 35 assists, while Trey Vescoso had five digs and five kills, then both Kevin Suarez and Jason Romero finished the night with three digs apiece.

Across the net, Augustana had five players with six or more kills led by Aiden Bolden's 12 kills on 34 swings with Tom Lamb and Ryan Huntington each added eight, Alexander Sulewski finished the match with seven kills, and Cole Clarke produced a six-kill night, proving many options for setter Colin Schaefer who had a match-high 38 assists while adding five digs.

Clarke men's volleyball will get back to Heart of America Athletic Conference play on Friday night when they welcome University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis to the Kehl Center for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve between the Pride and Eutectics.