Thrilling match between Pride and Vikings ends in 3-1 MVC victory

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Looking to salvage a a victory to close out their week, the Clarke University women's volleyball team dropped a tight 3-1 match to Missouri Valley College in the Kehl Center on Saturday afternoon.

Highlighted by their highest-scoring set of the season, which resulted in their lone set win, the Pride kept the first two sets about as close as possible before eventually falling then the Vikings would pull away to close out the match in the fourth to set scores of 25-23, 25-22, 31-33, and 25-16 in favor of MVC.

The lengthy third set saw CU holding their largest lead of any set on the day at 20-14 after a 5-0 run on the serve of Olivia LaCour took the set from 12-9 to 14-12 then another run, this time of 6-0 with Mia Jaeger at the serve gave Clarke a 20-14 lead looking to keep the match going.

Missouri Valley would answer with a 5-0 of their own to get the set back to a one-point margin and force a Pride timeout but Clarke would get a double set point at 24-22 before the Vikings forced extra points by scoring twice to tie the set at 24-24.

That's where the fun would begin in the gym as the two teams seemingly traded points back and forth with the Vikings having four serves for match point and Clarke staying alive every time before a 3-0 run capped off by a block assist from Keely Colyer and Kelsey NeCollins gave CU the 33-31 set win to force a fourth set.

That extended third set and playing a four set match resulted in high couting stats, especially on the defensive end as the Pride finished with season-highs of 100 digs and 11 blocks with five Clarke players finishing in double figures for digs led by Rylie Bohanan's 22 digs while Kortney Harms and Rachel Haubert weren't far behind at 19, each recording a double-double as Harms led the Pride with 24 assists and Haubert had 12 kills, as Jayden Knox added 13 and Jaeger also recording a double-double with 11 digs and 23 assists.

The blocking effort was led by the middle tandem of NeCollins and Kaelyn Minich as NeCollins was in on six of the 11 blocks and Minich was in on the other five with both having a solo block in the match and Colyer also added five block assists on the right side.

The Vikings were not far behind in the digs category as libero Ana Franco led the match with 27 digs, Ksenija Simun had 20 of her own, while leading the team with 16 kills, Paige Siebert had a 12-dig, 29-assist double-double, and Momoko Yokoyama had 11 digs in the match.

Attacking depth is where MVC made their mark over the course of the match as Simun's 16 kills led a group of five Vikings with seven or more kills as Blanca Arciniega Palma had 14, Kinga Ramonowicz had 13, Emma Schulte had 10, and Patrysia Uzoma had seven.

For the Pride, Maya Watters led the match with 19 kills but also had 11 errors on 59 swings for a .136 hitting percentage while Haubert's 12 was the only other CU player in double figures while Colyer had seven kills and Mattie Dafforn added eighrt kills and a .200 hitting percentage from the right side.

Clarke women's volleyball will be on the road for their next match when they travel to Canton, Mo. for a Tuesday, Oct. 15 match against Culver-Stockton College before beginning a six-match homestand starting next weekend.