Kansas Wesleyan Men's Volleyball returned home for the first time in over two weeks facing the Clarke University Pride inside Mabee Arena. The Coyotes would go toe-to-toe with Clarke, but ultimately fell in five sets 25-13, 17-25, 16-25, 25-17, 10-15 on Friday night.
The Coyotes rocketed out to an 8-2 lead in the opening set and pushed the lead out to 13-5 on a kill by
Dallas Manaku. Leading by six, the Coyotes scored the next four points including three straight
Alexander Rivera service aces to take an 18-8 lead. After a Clarke point, the Coyotes got two more on back-to-back kills by
Kaleb Cui. The Coyotes pushed the lead out to 23-11 before finishing the set winning 25-13.
The second set saw the Coyotes fall behind 10-5 and KWU eventually trailed 17-8 in the set.
Conor Williams put down a kill to spark a 4-0 KWU run, but the Coyotes couldn't get any closer than five points the rest of the set.
Clarke would pull away throughout the third set with several mini runs to take the set 25-16.
Wesleyan trailed 10-7 in the fourth set, but made a run to take the lead. KWU scored the next five points to lead 12-10 and after a Clarke point, the Coyotes ran off four more in a row, including three straight service aces by Cui to lead 16-11. The Coyotes extended the lead to 24-15 before Clarke score the next two before KWU finished it off winning 25-17.
The Coyotes fell behind 3-1 to start the fifth set but came back to tie it at 6-6 on a Rivera service ace. Clarke responded, taking a 13-8 lead which proved to be too much for the Coyotes to overcome.
Cui had 15 kills to lead the Coyotes and Williams added 11. Cui and Rivera had four service aces each. Rivera added 13 digs while Manaku and
Josh Kiely had 10 each. Manaku had 30 assists.
The Coyotes are back at home on Saturday hosting No. 7 ranked Mount Mercy at 11 a.m. inside Mabee Arena. The Coyotes then head on the road next weekend to face Missouri Valley and Culver-Stockton before closing the season with four straight home matches.
