Pride drop both ends of season-opening tournament matches

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting their 2025 season started with a pair of matches as part of a six-team home tournament, the Clarke University women's volleyball team as they fell in four sets in their first match of the day to Indiana University Northwest then dropped a three set match to Madonna University in the night cap in the Kehl Center.

Against the Redhawks and Crusaders, Clarke dropped the opening two sets and improved their play in the third on both occasions, earning a 25-12 third set win against IUN and holding a late set lead at 23-21 against MU but giving up a 4-0 run to close the set and clinch the sweep for Madonna.

Friday also marked the head coaching debut for Clarke alum Matt Gagner as he was joined by fellow alumn on his staff in assistant Justin Hernandez and graduate assistant Kainoa Gerard who all made their debut on the bench for CU.

The full set scores in each match were 25-21, 25-13, 12-25, and 25-19 in favor of Indiana Northwest then 25-17, 25-17, and the 25-23 against Madonna where CU's opponents' both hit right around the same percentage with IUN at .233 as a team for the match and the Crusaders at .238 as a team with the Pride's .400 set in the third set win over the Redhawks boosting that match's hitting percentage to a final .173 where they would go on to hit just .076 in the night's finale.

CU's offensive standouts in the opener were the tandem of Amelia Driver and Kortney Harms as the juniors combined for 24 of the team's 51 total kills as they both has 12 apiece in almost equal attempts as Driver had three errors on 25 swings for a .360 hitting percentage and Harms had only two errors on 24 swings for a .417.

Part of the offensive boost was due in large part to the insertion of sophomore setter Jenna Lewis as she only played the final two sets to finish with the second most assists on the team at 12 while adding five digs as she recorded eight of those 12 assists in the third set and would carry that momentum over to the second match where she would record her first career collegiate double-double with team-highs in both assists (13) and digs (10) as she set a new career-high for digs in a match.

Sophomore middle Kaelyn Minich and transfer junior outside Kira Finlay led the Pride in kills against Madonna with eight and six respectively as Emma Shea-Wopinek had a quality final two sets on the defensive back row, finishing with eight kills to be second in that category on the team behind the 10 from Lewis.

Libero Jayden Knox combined to have 24 digs on the day with a career-high 19 in the season opener as junior defensive specialist Madison Peck added 13 digs for the second most by any member of the Pride on the day.

Clarke women's volleyball will be right back in the Kehl Center on Saturday for two more matches, first an 11:00 a.m. CT first serve against York University followed by the tournament finale against St. Ambrose University at 3:00 p.m. CT.