The No. 7 nationally ranked Park University women's volleyball program are now the outright 2023 Heart of America Athletic Conference Champions after a decisive victory over Missouri Valley College in straight sets, 25-11, 25-17, 25-19.

This marks the 4^th straight regular season championship since joining the Heart and the Pirates now have captured at least a share of 10 of the last 11 regular season conference championships.
The Pirates are 26-2 on the year with a terrific 16-0 run in conference play. They now are also up to 22 matches won in a row tracking back to Labor Day weekend this Fall. The Vikings are now an even 15-15 on the season and 7-9 in conference play.

The match heavily favored Park in set one as a 13-1 scoring spree was brought on by Park. Debora Bernardi nailed three kills and had two blocks in this short span and Park kept their foot on the pedal for a 25-11 win.

Grecia Ung started off set two with two service aces within the first three points. Up until halfway through the set the Vikings were only four points down, but two separate three point scoring runs helped Park jump to 18-12 and 22-16 leads. The Pirates had their highest number of kills in set two with 13 and an efficient hitting percentage of .343. Without wasting anymore time, the Pirates took the final three points of the set for a 25-17 win.

Malaina Hensley had seven of Park's 12 kills in set three and she became the leading offensive player for Park with 12 kills for the match. Park took a 5-1 lead to begin the third set and impressively, a 1-0 lead for Missouri Valley was the only time Park was not in the lead during the entire match. Park soon climbed to their largest lead of the set at eight points, 17-9. Set three featured four service aces, which was half of their match total. The Vikings had their largest scoring run of five points on match points, but in the end fell to Park in straight sets, 25-19.

Bernardi was right behind Hensley with nine kills in the match and had five total blocks to her credit as well.

Both Ceratti and Ung had six kills and multiple service aces, two and three respectively.

Arianna Marino came in with her 13^th double-double of the season with 28 assists and 12 digs.

Senior night will be the final regular season match for Park at 7pm on Tuesday, October 31 against MidAmerica Nazarene. WATCH HERE
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