Pride drop both ends of tri-match in La Crosse

LA CROSSE, Wis. - On a quick turnaround to play a pair of non-conference matches after snapping a losing skid, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped both of their matches in La Crosse, Wis. on Saturday afternoon against No. 2 Saint Xavier University and Viterbo University, only winning one set in the two matches combined.

The No. 2 Cougars showed their might in CU's first match of the day with SXU earning set wins of 25-14, 25-13, and 25-21 with the Pride never producing more than five kills in any set to just 13 total in the match and a hitting percentage just above zero at .019 in the neutral court matchup.

In the final match of the day in the gym, the Pride dropped the first two sets to hosts Viterbo in their rematch from each team's season opener as the V-Hawks got their revenge from that previous five-set match to win in four by scores of 25-20, 25-23, 16-25, and 25-23 in favor of VU.

Clarke hit for a better team percentage against Viterbo, finishing at .248, which was even better than VU's .220, but were unable to come out on top of the match despite the trio of Tanner May, Dustin Kuner, and Trey Vescoso having double digit kills as May answered his team-high five against Saint Xavier with 16 and a .480 hitting percentage in the finale, Kuner hit for a strong .526 hitting percentage while adding four block assists, and Vescoso tied his career-high with 11 kills.

Defensively against VU, Benjamin Reiser was a dig away from a double-double, producing nine digs to go along with his 46 assists, libero Kevin Suarez had eight digs, and Eduardo Hernandez finished with seven digs and eight kills in the match.

Pride men's volleyball will return home for a rematch against William Penn University on Tuesday, Mar. 17 with a schedule start time of 7:00 p.m. CT at the Kehl Center.