Pride fight but fall in three in rematch against Dordt

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Starting their final home weekend of the 2025 season, the Clarke University men's volleyball team dropped a 3-0 match to Dordt University in the Kehl Center on Friday night.

Having a rough start to the match from a serve reception standpoint, the Pride dropped the opening set 25-14 but improved their game mid-match to drop the second set in extra points at 28-26 then held a late lead in the third but eventually fell 25-20.

Dordt had nine aces in that first set, including a 9-0 run that had six aces off of the serve of Cade Schmidt that took a 6-5 set and made it 15-5 in favor of the Defenders where they would cruise to that 11-point set win.

Clarke used a pair of runs in the second set to hold a 16-10 lead before DU came storming back to first tie the set at 22-22 then take their first lead since 6-5 at 24-23 before the teams would trade points to 26-26 as a Dordt block then another Schmidt ace gave the Defenders the 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set saw CU lead again fairly late at 20-17 before Dordt would close out the match on an 8-0 run on the serve of setter Lukas Van Groningen that included four kills from Andres Guzman, an ace, a block, then a match-sealing kill from Kai Chapman.

Guzman and Chapman had 14 and 13 kills respectively to finish with the top two kill totals in the match while Justin Hernandez was the only member of the Pride in double figures at 11 kills as Tanner May joined Hernandez producing double-digit points with eight kills and six total blocks for an 11.5-point night.

Clarke men's volleyball will be back on the Kehl Center court on Saturday, Mar. 29 when they host Morningside University for CU's Senior Day match that is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. CT between the Pride and Mustangs.