Park University's No. 8 nationally ranked men's volleyball program hosted their annual Pirate Invitational on Friday and Saturday, going 3-0 on the weekend.
Park had two matches against Morningside University and No. 7 Georgetown College on Friday and completed their week with Ottawa University on Saturday.
The Pirates are now 9-0 on the season and will still have a few non-conference matchups mixed in their schedule moving forward.
No. 8 Park vs Morningside | 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-16) | Box Score
The Pirates were comfortable on Claude English Court with an attack percentage of .323 as a team in their opening match. Park had their highest attack percentage of .400 in the first set against the Mustangs. Interestingly enough, both teams had progressively lower attack percentages in the remaining sets.
The Pirates defensively held Morningside to a .071 attack percentage and earned four solo blocks and 10 block assists.
There was an even blend of Pirates who were involved offensively.
Samuel Essilfie led all Park players with seven kills and tied for the most digs with six.
Three other Pirates had at least four kills, starting with
Veljko Stojic's six kills followed by
Joao Infante and
Mihailo Ivanovic with five and four kills, respectively. Each of these three are among the talented group of Pirate freshman that have come on the scene in 2023.
The second set was the closest, as the Mustangs came within one point of Park towards the end of the set at 17-16 and 18-17. Park was able to get some breathing room from
Carston Wellong and
Eduardo Faquin's block for the 19-17 lead. A mixture of attack errors and service errors further widened the margin for Park's 25-19 win.
No. 8 Park vs No. 7 Georgetown | 3-1 (25-20, 25-27, 25-21, 25-14) | Box Score
This may have been the most riveting match of the season for Park, although it is hard to beat Park's other Top 10 win against former No. 5 ranked William Penn University. The emotion poured into every point was tangible inside Breckon Sports Center on Friday night, as this was a back-and-forth match for the majority of the contest.
In the first set, Park had no more than a three-point lead through the majority of the set. There finally was breakthrough when trailing the Tigers, 17-16. At that point, Park flipped the switch and earned five straight points that forced two consecutive Georgetown timeouts.
Joao Friedrich was the spark with a kill and a block he combined for with
Mihailo Ivanovic. Essilfie paved a route for Park with two kills in that stretch as well. The burst of points was enough to push Park across the finish line, 25-20.
The Tigers grabbed their largest lead of four points in the second set at 14-10 off of four consecutive points, which caused Park to call a timeout at 13-10.
Park worked extremely hard with a seven-point run to overtake Georgetown 17-14, but the Tigers showed some poise under pressure to extend the match past the 25 point line. Georgetown was able to control the final three points off of a Park service error, a block by Tyree Wesley and Tyler Chavez, and a Pirate attack error.
The 27-25 win was big for the Tigers, but Park recovered with vengeance in the remaining two sets for the 3-1 victory.
The Pirates led by as much as 12-6 in the third set and after fighting off the Georgetown counters, kills by Stojic and Friedrich closed the third set, 25-21.
Georgetown had to play back-to-back matches Friday afternoon, and one can't help but think their legs were getting tired. Park seemed to have more gas in the tank compared to the Tigers. Park earned their highest attack percentage of the match with a .308 on 13 kills, five errors, and 26 total attacks.
Georgetown was held to a .000 attack percentage in the final set and Park held the Tigers to their lowest hitting percentage of the season at .164 for the match.
Park's Friedrich and Georgetown's Ryan Gunn were the clear offensive leaders with 21 kills apiece in the match. Friedrich slightly under .300 at .289 and led both teams with three service aces. For the tournament Friedrich had 10 service aces and currently leads the NAIA in service aces per set with 1.12.
It seemed like there was a little more balance from Park's squad though as Park registered 56 kills to Georgetown's 41.
Essilfie was the only other player in double-figure kill numbers with 11.
Park was bolstered up front with outstanding production from
Daniel Isernhagen,
Mihailo Ivanovic, and
Veljko Stojic. These three helped earn 22 block assists as a team. Isernhagen led with one solo block and six block assists, while Stojic and Ivanovic both had five block assists.
This trio were also next in line offensively with eight kills for Stojic, seven kills for Isernhagen, and six kills for Ivanovic.
Stojic, while only a freshman, is playing like an upper-classmen for the Pirates. He had one of the more balanced matches with seven digs to go along with his other numbers. He was on the latest Pirate Post-Game to go over the invigorating win.
Eduardo Faquin is coming off of a Heart Setter of the Week award and is keeping up the good work with 46 assists in this match. For the tournament, he posted 78 assists in seven sets for an average of 11.14 assists per set.
No. 8 Park vs Ottawa | 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-14) | Box Score
It was smooth sailing in the final match of the 2023 Pirate Invitational for Park and 17 different Pirates made appearances on the court.
Marcus Lucchesi and Faquin split time at setter and Lucchesi earned 23 assists and fired two service aces.
Infante matched Lucchesi's service ace numbers and was second on the team with five kills.
Leading the Pirates in kills and service aces was
Nicolas Tenius at nine kills and three service aces.
As a team, Park earned their season-high with 11 service aces in the match and had their second highest attack percentage of .349.
Park now prepares themselves to go to Des Moines, Iowa for a Heart of America Athletic Conference showdown with No. 4 Grand View University on Tuesday, February 14. Â
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