The No. 6 nationally ranked Park University women's volleyball program defeated No. 19 Mount Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU) on Wednesday night in 2023 NAIA Women's Volleyball Pool Play presented by Marriott South Sioux City Riverfront and Riverside Technologies Inc.

In their 11^th straight appearance at the final site of the national tournament, the Pirates matched up with MVNU for the first time in school history, sweeping the Cougars 25-21, 25-23, 25-20.

Park extends their win-streak to 28 matches in a row at 32-2, while the Cougars drop to 31-8. This is MVNU's first NAIA final site appearance since 2016.

The Pirates move to 21-7 in their national championship pool play matches all-time.

The Crossroads League Tournament Runner-Up hit below their season average of .227 and only registered a .160, while the Pirates were at .282 for the match to exceed their own season average of .234.

There were a few big lead changes in set one starting off with a Park lead of 8-6, which prompted a four-point Cougar scoring run to draw a Michael Talamantes time out. After a few alternating points between these squads, Park galvanized together and went on a four-point streak of their own to take back the lead 15-13, forcing a MVNU timeout. Grecia Ung gave great effort in set one with four kills to help Park wrap up set one with a 25-21 win. Set one would be the only set, the Cougars would earn more kills than Park at 17 to 13.

Despite the Cougars jumping into a 4-0 lead in set two, Park responded with a ferocious 8-1 run to capture a 8-5 lead. Both teams ,could feel the weight of these early moments in set two, as both head coaches called timeouts by this point in the game. Malaina Hensley had two service aces and Debora Bernardi had two kills and a block in this span. Park gained some separation at 19-14 off of another Bernardi kill, a Barbara Almeida and Arianna Marino block, and a Izabella Ceratti kill for a 3-0 run. The Cougars would not go down quietly though with 5-2 run to make it 21-19, which was accompanied by the last Park timeout. The Cougars again was on the offensive with a 4-2 run to tie the game at 23-23. The next two points though were grabbed by Park on a Hensley kill and a double block from Bernardi and Marino, 25-23.

A 6-6 tie in set three quickly snowballed into a 13-6 lead for Park as three, unforced attack errors by the Cougars helped Park turn the corner. The lead did not grow beyond seven, but it would not drop below seven either. Five kills by Ung and four kills by Hensley would more than carry Park to the finish line in the match, 25-20.

Ung and Hensley, after all, were Park's leading attackers in the match with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Ung only had three errors on 21 attacks for a grand hitting percentage of .429. They each recorded seven digs defensively as well.

Bernardi and Ceratti were up their in kills too with nine and eight for the match.

The 2023 Heart of America Athletic Conference Setter of the Year and Freshman of the Year, Marino, played her role exquisitely with a double-double on 38 assists and 13 digs.

Irene Verdino was kept the ball of the lumber with 15 digs for the match, while Bernardi, Marino, and Almeida formed a wall at the net with a combined 11 block assists.
 
The Pirates will continue their post-season run against No. 11 Columbia College at 7pm on Friday, December 1 in Sioux City, Iowa at the Tyson Events Center. WATCH
Box Score