Pride comeback effort results in Heart-opening five set win at MNU

OLATHE, Kan. - Getting their first taste of Heart of America Athletic Conference action in the 2024 season, the Clarke University women's volleyball team was able to power through some rough moments to earn a 3-2 road win at MidAmerica Nazarene University on Saturday night.

A first set comeback from down 18-9 away from being swept, the Pride earned a 25-22 opening-set win before struggling in the second and third to 25-11 and 25-16 losses before earning an extra points 28-26 win in the fourth then handling their business in the fifth win win fairly comfortably at 15-11.

The first set comeback effort started on the serve of sophomore setter Mia Jaeger as she served for a four-point run aided by an ace and a pair of Pioneer attack errors before the CU serve would rotate to Ariana Rodriguez to get Clarke to a 20-19 lead behind kills from Maya Watters, Mattie Dafforn and Rachel Haubert during the run.

Haubert would help put away the set with kills to get to a 23-31 and to win the set at 25-22 as the senior outside hitter would finish the match leading the team in kills (15) and digs (21) while producing a .212 hitting percentage on 52 attempts with only four errors in those 52 swings.

Clarke's tough stretch in the middle of the match started with an 11-0 open to the second set then the third set stayed close to 7-7 before various different runs would allow MNU to climb ahead to 11-7, 15-9, then eventually 19-10 before closing out the final three points of the set to win 25-16.

Needing the fourth set to stay in the match, the Pride would have strong start leading 6-3 then 11-7 before a mid-set comeback from the Pioneers gave them the lead back at 17-16 as the only time the lead would grow beyond one point was briefly at 21-19 and 22-20 for CU as the set would go extra points, looking like Clarke had a 26-24 win but a lift call on a potential Maya Watters kill extended the set before MNU's Pavlina Pelcova would be called for the same violation giving CU their 28-26 set win.

The final set stayed within a point or two all the way to a 0-0 tie before a Haubert kill would start a 4-0 run to 13-9 as Amelia Driver would finish a kill to get it to match point and the unlikeliest of candidates would get the final kill of the match as Pride libero Rylie Bohanan recorded her only kill of the match to win it at 15-11.

Watters (13) and Dafford (10) also finished with double digit kills in support of Haubert's team-leading effort as Jaeger finished with her first double-double of the season with 18 assists and 14 digs while Kortney Harms led Clarke with 30 assists and Bohanan was one dig shy of Haubert's team lead at 20.

MNU was led by a match-high 19 kills from Alyssa Reichard while the trio of Avery Lowe, Mia Olson, and Pelcova all added 11 kills apiece as setter Katrina Davis led the match with 42 assists and added 10 digs for a double-double of her own while Isabella Munari led the match with 23 digs.

Clarke women's volleyball will stay in the Kansas City area to close out the weekend with a Sunday afternoon match at Baker University with first serve scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CT in Baldwin City, Kan. between the Pride and Wildcats.