Senior Night Energy Not Enough to Lift Morningside to Win Over No. 4 Mount Mercy

SIOUX CITY, IOWA – Morningside's Mustangs celebrated Senior Night against a top-five opponent, the no. 4 Mount Mercy Mustangs, in men's volleyball action tonight. While the scoreboard and the national rankings both favored the visitors, Morningside, fueled by an energetic Allee Gym crowd, forced Mount Mercy to be on its A game in a close 3-0 Morningside loss, 25-19, 25-23, 25-19.

While Morningside's offense was held in check by Mount Mercy's defense, the home team was opportunistic, picking up 40 points off of visiting team errors. Morningside, in contrast, had 22 errors. 

Natan Alves led Morningside's attackers, as he has much of his career to date, with seven kills. Mauro Verstraeten followed with five kills, and seniors Mohamed Benkrid and Ferdinando Vinti each followed with three. Palikapu Wilson had two, and Edoardo Pirazzo and Tucker Juhnke each had one. Lucca Stoelinga and Malu Wilcox each had 10 assists in the match. 

Morningside's defense tallied three total blocks in the match, with Wilson knocking down both a solo block and a block assist. Vinti teamed up with Wilson for a block assist, and Pirazzo added another solo block.

Juhnke added five digs to his stat line, while Benkrid, Berstraeten, Stoelinga, and Alves each had two.

Morningside will be the only Mustangs returning to the Allee Gym floor tomorrow, as they match up with the Clarke Pride in a 1 p.m. contest.