Pride fall in four on the road at Graceland

LAMONI, Iowa - Wrapping up a four-match stretch on the road, the Clarke University women's volleyball team dropped a four-set match 3-1 to Graceland University on Tuesday night in Lamoni, Iowa.

The Yellowjackets were able to survive a second set win by CU by a score of 25-18, the largest set margin of the night, as GU produced first and third set wins of 25-20 then clinched the match with an extra points 26-24 victory in the fourth set.

In the fourth, the Pride were able to come back from down eight points early after taking a 15-7 deficit and getting the set tied at 20-20 and even taking the lead at 21-20 but it would be a back-and-forth finish until two-straight points from Graceland at a 24-24 score to clinch the set on a kill from Kaci Young.

Young and Clarke's Keely Colyer tied for the match lead in kills with 13 each as Colyer had the slight hitting percentage advantage between the two at a .167  while adding 15 assists, five digs, and two total blocks while Young had a .143 hitting percentage and four block assists in the match.

The supporting attack behind Colyer for the Pride saw Kortney Harms and Amelia Driver both produce seven kills as Harms led the team with 16 assists and both juniors had six digs and a block assist on the night while the middle tandem of Kaelyn Minich and Kelsey NeCollins had 10 kills and five errors on 29 total attacks.

On the back row for CU, Jayden Knox produced 14 digs with Ariana Rodriguez adding eight, Kira Finlay finishing with seven, and Jenna Lewis having four digs with all four of those members of the Pride playing in all four sets.

Clarke women's volleyball will return home for the weekend for their first matches in the Kehl Center since Sept. 20 when they host a pair of matches on Friday and Saturday starting with Central Methodist University visiting Dubuque on Oct. 3 for a 6:00 p.m. CT match between the Pride and Eagles.