Pride and Pirates' Saturday match ends with 3-1 Park win

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Facing their second-straight home match in as many days, the Clarke University women's volleyball team fell 3-1 to Park University on Saturday afternoon in the Kehl Center.

The Pride would struggle early on in the match, with the Pirates going on significant runs to lead by as many as 12 points at various times throughout the set to a 25-14 first set win before CU would turn the tides in the second on their way to a 25-21 win to even the match at a set apiece behind a 6-0 run to go from up 15-13 to up 21-13 on the serve of middle blocker Kaelyn Minich who had three aces in the run along with two Keely Colyer kills and an Amelia Driver kill.

Park would answer with a 25-21 set win in the third then close things out in the fourth with a runaway 25-15 set win to earn their 10th match win of the season as they would finish every set with double digit kills but work their most efficient offensive set in the final frame with only two errors to a .361 hitting percentage compared to a .000 from CU after having eight kills and eight errors in the fourth.

For the second-straight match, freshman setter Jaxcyn Berntgen led the team in assists with 15 while adding eight digs and a kill with Kortney Harms finishing with 12 assists, eight kills, and six digs and outside hitter Kira Finlay producing a career-high five assists as she also had four kills and eight digs, finding herself positioned well for the digs and some of those assists coming from that good positioning, being in the right spot at the right time for some unorthodox kills from Clarke.

Driver was the team's leader in kills, one ahead of Harms with nine kills on the day with a .174 hitting percentage with Colyer producing seven kills on 34 swings as Minich and Kelsey NeCollins combined for five kills and being in on all 10 of the Clarke blocks in the match.

With starting libero Jayden Knox out of the game due to illness, the Pride back line was a combination of dual liberos Ariana Rodriquez and Jenna Lewis produce four and nine digs repsectively with Madison Peck sliding to Rodriguez's normal role of a defensive sub in the back row where Peck would produce seven digs.

Clarke women's volleyball will host another home match next Tuesday, Oct. 7 when they welcome rival Mount Mercy University to the Kehl Center for a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled first serve between the Pride and Mustangs.