Park University's No. 5 nationally ranked men's volleyball program was tested in Marshall, Mo. against the Vikings of (RV) Missouri Valley College on Tuesday. The match went came down to the fifth set, as Park pulled out the win, 25-19, 23-25, 25-16, 26-19, 15-4.

The Pirates have had a special 2023 season thus far and are now 16-0 on the season with a 12-0 Heart of America Athletic Conference record, while the Vikings are 9-7 and 5-6 of the same.

Despite hitting over .400 in the first and fifth sets, and .357 in the third set; Park was held to their lowest attack percentage of the season at .198. The defense won the day on both sides as Missouri Valley was at .119 for the match and both teams were at 12 block assists for the match. The Pirates had the slight advantage of six solo blocks to Missouri Valley's four, but besides that the blocking was very evenly matched.

Fortunately for the Pirates, their fourth match of 10 or more service aces because they also had their season-high in service errors with 16. Both sides gave extra chances to their opponent, as the Vikings had 19 service errors.

The Pirates were in a tight set one at 17-15, but scoring four-of-five points was made possible by two kills from Joao Friedrich and Daniel Isernhagen.

The last four-of-five points were captured by Park in the next instant, courtesy of kills Mihailo Ivanovic and Samuel Essilfie. After these two key scoring shifts, Park won set one 25-19.

In set two, a 10-6 lead favored the Pirates. With a string of three points though, the Vikings were back on the offensive at 16-14. Park rebounded briefly, but momentum went back to the Vikings as they scored four unanswered points for the 25-23 win.

It was a strong showing in the third set with four service aces by the Pirates. Two of those aces came from Nicolas Tenius, who had three for the match. His teammate Friedrich joined him with three as well.

Four unforced attack errors by the Vikings in the third set and two additional blocks by the Pirates also came in handy for the Pirates to earn their largest win of the evening.
Park's seven-point lead at 14-7 only grew by the end of the set after Park claimed six of the last seven points for the 25-16 win.

This time in the fourth set, Park would be the ones with four attack errors plus another three blocks were garnered by the Viking defense. With a score of 6-5 on the board in favor of Missouri Valley, a four-point swing gave them the upper hand for the 10-5 lead.

This effectively took Park out of it though, as the Pirates were only able to cut the deficit down to three points for the rest of the set.

In the final set, four different Pirates recorded kills in the race to 15. Joao Infante left it all out on the court with three kills to help put the match away. Yet again, costly attack errors came back to bite the Vikings as six attack errors proved too much to overcome. The Pirates kept their composure and made it out of Marshall with their undefeated season still intact, following the 15-4 fifth set win.

Essilfie led Park with 11 kills, while Friedrich also breached double-figure kill numbers with 10. Ivanovic and Infante were both key contributors with eight kills. Just behind these two was Isernhagen who delivered a strong seven kills and team-leading six blocks.

Eduardo Faquin also had a balanced night with 38 assists, seven digs, and four total blocks. Friedrich also earned seven digs, while the Pirates' libero Leonardo Leao earned 13 digs.

All eyes will be on No. 5 Park and No. 12 Grand View University for their NAIA Top 15 matchup on Thursday night at 7pm inside Breckon Sports Center. They are both the top teams in the Heart with only two games separating them in the Heart standings. Watch the live-action here.

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