The Park University women's volleyball program makes the most of Senior Night against No.21 Central Methodist University on Tuesday, playing their best volleyball for the sweep victory over the Eagles in Breckon Sports Center, 25-20, 25-18, 25-19.

In arguably the biggest match of the year, so far, the Pirates now rise to 22-9 and 12-5 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference to earn the No. 3 spot in the Heart Tournament and will host a quarterfinal match on Saturday, November 9 against No. 6 Mount Mercy University at 5:30pm. Central Methodist with only their third loss in conference on the season stands at 25-6 and 14-3 on the regular season and conference records.

Park had the awesome opportunity to recognize 10 seniors, who have poured so much into the program, including Gabi Sandins, Carla Pons Sales, Patricia Carrio Ubeda, Izabella Ceratti, Amra Kovac, Mafalda Bras, Aly Anderson, Grecia Ung, Irene Verdino, and Dorianna Braxton.

Both teams split against one another at each other's home venues and both matches were sweeps in favor of the home team.

The Pirates and Central Methodist were extremely tight in set one with nine ties and five lead changes throughout the opening number. Both teams stayed within a point of one another until Park got a two point lead at 12-10 on a kill by Grecia Ung. Then a 3-0 run gave Park a 15-11 lead after a kill from Avery Caskey. Central Methodist came back with a 3-0 run of their own to bring the score within a point, 15-14. Park managed to stay on top with a kill by Ung, and before you knew it the Pirates were rolling again with a 3-0 run to force a Central Methodist timeout at 19-15. The Eagles could not gain on Park and set one finished 25-20 on a kill by the senior Ceratti.

The Pirates unloaded a 7-0 run to begin set two and you could tell that Park was on. Four of these points were attack errors by Central Methodist and Park's Ceratti and Trinity Iverson combined for a double-block. The Eagles were hitting -.098 in set two. The Pirates had their lowest hitting percentage in the second set as well, but still made less mistakes with 12 kills, nine errors, and 39 total attacks for a .077 hitting percentage. Park went up nine points, 11-2, on a double-block from Caskey and Daniela Gomez. The Eagles were able to make some strides and towards the end of the set were only down five at 21-16, but the Pirates did not let them come any closer, and a 3-0 run ended set two 25-18.

The run continued in set three and Park scored six points in a row from set two to set three. Another senior in Anderson got Park off on the right foot with a service ace in set three, then Ceratti stamped down two consecutive kills for a 3-0 lead. After a 6-3 run, including back-to-back service aces from Ung, increased the lead to 9-3. The Eagles were kept at a distance of around three to four points for the remainder of the set, and again, the Pirates closed the door to end the set 25-19 from a four-year Pirate from Lisboa, Portugal, Mafalda Bras.

Park doubled the number of service aces that the Eagles had with four Pirate service aces for the match, but the Park had eight service errors to only two for the Eagles. Park also doubled the number of blocks the Eagles had with six.

The Eagles were held to their second lowest hitting percentage of the season at .071 and it was their lowest hitting percentage in conference play this year by .063 points. Park was over their season average with a hitting percentage of .256.

Ceratti put up a big number with 18 kills and hit an extremely high percentage of .472.

Caskey and Ung played their roles well with 10 and eight kills, respectively. Besides her kills and two aces, Ung also made an impact defensively with 12 digs.

Verdino and Anderson are consist with double-figure dig numbers too and had 14 and 11, respectively.

Iverson left her mark with six kills and block, while the senior Amra Kovac led Park with three blocks, two of which were solo blocks.

Park jumped Grand View University in the standings and clinched the No. 3 seed in the Heart Tournament Quarterfinal on Saturday, November 9 at Breckon Sports Center against No. 6 Mount Mercy University at 5:30pm. WATCH HERE
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