Graceland and Park were the first in the Heart of America Athletic Conference to play a conference game around the league and Park currently is in first place in the Heart at 1-0 and 2-0 for the season. The Yellowjackets are now 0-2 on the season and 0-1 in the Heart.

The Pirates had double-digit kills in each set and hit a massive .579 in the first set. For the match Park hit .391 and held Graceland to a hitting percentage of .014.
Joao Friedrich and Samuel Essilfie began the match with two kills for Park's first points. From there, the freshman middle blocker Mihailo Ivanovic from Gornji Milanovac, Serbia was part of three blocks and had a kill to give the Pirates the 9-2 advantage.

It was a strong finish of set one as well with 10 of the last 13 points being claimed by Park for the 25-14 victory. Friedrich uncorked four service aces in a row in set one to lead up to Veljko Stojic's kill for set point.

Park's Friedrich and Essilfie were major players with five kills apiece in set one. For the match, Friedrich had 15 kills and hit .385, while Essilfie was putting on a clinic himself with 10 kills on a .471 hitting percentage day.

Interestingly enough, another 9-2 lead occurred in set two for Park. This time though, Graceland was unable to stop a 6-0 run for Park that brought the set to 15-5. Park and Graceland had some back-and-forth, but the deficit was to great to overcome, as Park outscored the Yellowjackets 10-5 in the remaining moments of the set for the 25-11 win.
The third set was the most contested set of them all, as the score was knotted up at 5-5 in the early going.

Four of the next five points for Park were courtesy of Essilfie, who within this stretch hammered down three kills in a row for the 10-6 lead.
Credit Graceland for showing resilience on their home court and came roaring back to take the lead 14-12.

Immediately following a Park timeout, five unanswered points came in for Park to regain the 17-14 lead. Park added to their lead by two points by the end of the set and closed out the match 25-20 for the sweep.
Stojic and Ivanovic contributed on the offensive end with five and four kills, respectively. Ivanovic was the defensive leader at the net with two solo blocks and six block assists.
For the match, Park had four solo blocks and 12 block assists, while Graceland was able to have 11 block assists.

Leonardo Leao was Park's digs leader with 12 for the afternoon, while Stojic and Essilfie trailed with five digs each.

Allowing the offense to take off was Eduardo Faquin, who put together an outstanding day of 31 assists, four digs, and one service ace.

An NAIA top 10 matchup will come to Breckon Sports Center on Tuesday, January 31^st, featuring No. 8 Park and No. 5 William Penn University at 7pm.  Watch the live-action here.
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