The No. 8 nationally ranked Park University women's volleyball program has been on a strong streak in the Heart of America Athletic Conference with their 10^th straight win in 2023. Today, the Pirates took care of business in Oskaloosa, Iowa against William Penn University 25-15, 25-14, and 25-13.

Park has risen to a 16-2 record and a perfect 10-0 Heart record, while the Statesmen are now 12-12 and 6-5 in conference play.

The Pirates got better as the match went along, defeating their opponent by an additional point each set, while also improving on their number of kills per set and hitting percentage. Park had their highest attack percentage of the day in the third set at .429 and collected 18 kills.

The Pirates quickly ran out to a 9-2 lead in the first set and Park kept their foot on the gas marked by a five-point scoring run to give them a 19-6 lead. Grecia Ung made her impact felt early with five kills in the first set alone. The deficit was too large to overcome and the Statesmen fell to Park 25-15 in set one.

Set two, while it began closer for the Statesmen, the result would be much of the same. Park held an 8-7 lead before an 8-0 run broke the set open for a 16-7 Park lead. You never know who it is going to be in a given match that gets their number called, but Debora Bernardi answered with six kills in the second set. She had an impeccable day with 10 kills and nine block assists with a .381 hitting percentage. Bernardi and company had no problem finishing out the set for the win, 25-15.

Park caught their spark from the get go in set three with a 4-0 run to begin the set. Izabella Ceratti started the set with two kills in the opening two points and continued to be force to be reckoned with for a total of eight kills in the third set. She is tonight's leading attacker with 15 kills and a through the roof attack percentage of .682. This is Ceratti's third straight match of double-figure kills, earning 10 in each of her last two matches. The Pirates had a 10-9 lead in the third set before leaving the Statesmen behind in the dust with 11 of the next 12 points to claim a 21-10 lead over William Penn.

Park was able to tack on another point to gain their largest lead of the match at 12 with a 25-13 victory.

It was a well balanced night defensively for Park with several key players earning great dig numbers. First, Irene Verdino led Park with 15 digs, while Ung recovered 11 of her own. Malaina Hensley and Ceratti had respectable nights of their own with seven digs each.

Arianna Marino had high-output performance with 35 assists.

Besides the double-figure offensive numbers by Ceratti and Bernardi, Hensley and Ung were top of the line too with nine and eight kills respectively.

Park will reload against MidAmerica Nazarene University on Tuesday, October 12^th at 7pm in Olathe, Kan. WATCH HERE
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