Park University's No. 3 nationally ranked men's volleyball team mixed in a non-conference game with Central Christian College on Tuesday night, defeating the Tigers without much resistance, 25-6, 25-11, 25-17.
Park is playing with house money at this point in the year, already clinching home court advantage through the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament. They are now 21-0 after their sweep and remain a perfect 15-0 in the Heart. Central Christian has had a rough go around in 2023 and are 1-20 on the season after tonight.
The Pirates hit their highest hitting percentage of the season at .596, including a near perfect hitting percentage in set one of .875. Park had 14 kills in set one with no errors on 16 attempts.
Park spread the wealth to a multitude of contributors, as 11 different Pirates posted a kill in the match. Co-leading with seven kills apiece were
Gabriel Soares and
Ignacio Pedemonte. Soares was on point with the second most attempts on the team with nine and still had a .778 hitting percentage.
Park's
Pedro Santana delivered his closing remarks on this Pirate-Post Game interview.
The match began with a 5-0 scoring run by Park and by the end the Pirates earned the last nine of 10 points for the win, 25-6.
Marcus Lucchesi and
Pablo Llorente split the assist numbers tonight, combining for 35. Lucchesi had 25 with four kills and Llorente added seven.
 Another quick start in set two put Park up 7-1 over the Tigers. Four kills came into play in this span by
Carston Wellong, Soares, Pedemonte, and
Alessandro Tolin.
At 7-3, the Pirates secured the next six of seven points to propel them to a 13-4 lead and soon the lead grew to 14 when the final score settled at 25-11.
It was more contested in the final set as it was tied at 7-7 in the early stages. Park controlled the second half of the set and had a scoring run of three points to bump them to a comfortable 20-14 lead. The Pirates sealed the match with a 25-17 final set against the Tigers.
Park had four solo blocks and four block assists in the match and was led by Tolin's three total blocks.
Lucchesi gave park a bit of everything in the match and besides assists, he also supplied the Pirates with six digs, three service aces, and one solo block.
Soares also joined Lucchesi with three aces and Park finished with 11 in the match.
The Pirates travel to St. Louis, Mo. to face the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy on Friday, March 17 at 7pm.
Watch the live-action here.
Box Score
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