Park University's No. 3 nationally ranked men's volleyball program completed their road trip to St. Louis, Mo. with No. 15 Missouri Baptist University on Saturday. The Spartans picked up the last two sets against the Pirates to win the match, 25-14, 19-25, 25-20, 22-25, 11-15.

This marks Park's first loss of the 2023 campaign and their program record for consecutive wins halts at 22-0. The Pirates are now 22-1 and 16-1 in the Heart. Park's seeding in the conference tournament is unaffected as the winner of the Heart Regular Season Title. Missouri Baptist moves to a 19-7 and 12-6 record in the Heart.

The Spartans are now 12-2 when playing the Pirates in St. Louis, Mo. and have a 7-match winning streak against the Pirates at home.

Both teams had similar attack percentages, as Park hit .248 as a team, while the Spartans hit .221. The Spartans also claimed 10 service aces over Park to the Pirates' nine. Interestingly, the Pirates had seven less service errors with 10 to Missouri Baptist's 17.

The Spartans had 10 or more kills in each set today and hit over .300 in the last two sets.

In set one, Park had moved into a 12-8 lead after a 6-2 scoring run. Samuel Essilfie had two kills in that span and Daniel Isernhagen added a block and a kill as well.

The last four points were taken by Park to win the first set 25-14. The Pirates started off hot and hit .609 as a team in set one.

A 11-10 game turned into a 16-13 Spartan lead in set two brought on by a 6-2 scoring run of their own. A 5-0 scoring run by Missouri Baptist helped seal the 25-19 second set.

This time in set three, Park did not give up the lead at the midway point as a block by Mihailo Ivanovic gave Park a 13-10 lead. Park was success defensively with 25 block assists. Isernhagen and Veljko Stojic were key in the blocking effort with eight and six block assists, respectively.

The Pirates had their second most kills of the match with 13 in set three and hit for a .321, pushing them over the edge for the 25-20 victory. In both sets Park won, Missouri Baptist hit exactly .161 on the nose.

Four lead changes took place in set three after a 4-0 start of the set by the Spartans. A four-point swing late in the set gave Missouri Baptist the 20-17 lead and evened the match at 2-2 with a 25-22 set score.

Missouri Baptist had 10 kills in the final frame and after earning four-of-five points for the 7-4 lead, Park called for timeout. The Pirates responded with a 4-0 run to tie the match at 11, Essilfie had two kills for the tie and he finished with 18 kills.

The Spartans would call time out and then came out with the same 4-0 response the Pirates did to win the match, 15-11.

Stojic and Isernhagen had 10 kills in the match. Stojic showed more than just the offense though and earned 10 digs defensively for a double-double.

Leonardo Leao also was in double-digit digs with 17 for the match.

Park's assist leader was Eduardo Faquin who dished out 37 assists for the match and contributed seven digs as well.  

The Pirates celebrate senior night on Tuesday, March 21 in Breckon Sports Center at 7pm with their final regular season match against Culver-Stockton College. Watch the live-action here.
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