2026 season comes to a close for Pride in home defeat to No. 4 Mount Mercy

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Hosting a Heart of America Athletic Conference rematch in their final contest of the 2026 season, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped a 3-0 match to No. 4 Mount Mercy University on Tuesday night in the Kehl Center.

The NAIA ranked Mustangs showed their might in the regular season finale with set wins by scores of 25-17, 25-7, and 25-19 as the Pride attack struggled to get much going to finish at a team hitting percentage of -.048 with 14 errors and just 11 kills while MMU produced a .317 hitting percentage.

By the end of the match, 93 of the 118 points scored in the match (78.8%) came off of the hands of a Mount Mercy player by way of a Mustang kill, attack error, ace, service, error, or block as CU finished with more total blocks in the match (12) than they had kills (11) with six blocks apiece coming from Tanner May and Nolan Amdur while Dustin Kuner and Benjamin Reiser each had a solo block while Kuner finished at four block assists, and Reiser added three block assists.

A bright spot in the Pride attack was senior Eduardo Hernandez, who finished at a team-high five kills on 21 swings while tying for the team-high with five digs as he and Amdur were the only Pride attackers to finish with a positive hitting percentage at .143 and .091 respectively.

Clarke men's volleyball closes out their 2026 season at an 8-20 overall record and a 4-15 record in the Heart, a three and one win improvement respectively from 2025 in head coach Marvin Fong's first season at the helm of Pride men's volleyball with Hernandez and May the lone active seniors graduating from the team heading into the 2026-27 school year.