The No. 2 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program had a midweek business trip to Oskaloosa, Iowa on Tuesday night to face No. 5 William Penn University. The Statesmen were able to secure a close four-set win over the Pirates, 23-25, 32-30, 29-31, 25-18.

Park was riding an eight match win streak before last night and now are 13-2 on the season. This is the first loss in Heart of America Athletic Conference play for Park and they are now 5-1. William Penn shares a similar record at 12-2 and 6-1 in conference play.

It was an entertaining match through and through for both teams in Park's third NAIA Top 5 match of the season. The Pirates are 1-2 against NAIA Top 5 teams this year with their only other loss coming against No. 1 The Master's University.

Both teams hit at an extraordinary clip, .326 for Park and .356 for William Penn. A huge difference in the game came in the service game, as the Pirates had a season-high 23 service errors, while the Statesmen had nine less service errors and had five service aces compared to only three service aces for the Pirates.

Park got off to a slow start with their lowest hitting percentage of the night at .172, while William Penn hit a solid .355. Four lead changes took place early on and William Penn took a slim 11-10 lead. The match remained tight as the score was tied five times before the Statesmen captured a three-point lead after a 3-0 run, 18-15. Two kills by Joao Friedrich and a kill by Mihailo Ivanovic helped give the Pirates a 22-21 lead. Another 3-0 run by the Statesmen immediately fell upon Park and William Penn secured the opening set win, 25-23.

Set two was an amazing display of offense by the Pirates as 28 kills were registered in set two and Park hit their highest percentage of the set at .545. It made for a great set as William Penn also hit a high mark of .441. The Pirates were led by the nine kills in set two by Friedrich, he would lead Park throughout the night with a 21-spot on William Penn. Park led by as much as six points at 16-10, but William Penn had an 8-2 run to tie things up at 18 apiece. Both sides left it all out on the court and the set went extra long and the Pirates were able to tie the match 1-1 with a 32-30 set two win.

The third set went nearly as long, but the Statesmen were able to secure the win, 31-29. Neither side was able to hit above .200 for the set. There were eight service errors by Park in set two and similarly, the Pirates had seven service errors in set three to give some free passes to the Statesmen. William Penn was able to counter late in each set and despite a 20-18 lead by Park, William Penn came back to lead 21-20. William Penn had a service error and two attack errors in a row to give Park a 23-21 lead, but once again William Penn forced the set to go long. A service error and a double-block by the Statesmen finished the set at 31-29.

William Penn had their lowest number of kills in set four, but they were at their most efficient with zero errors on 20 attacks for a .600 attack percentage. Park hit a good .312 on 15 kills, but this would not be enough ultimately. It was tied 4-4 before the Statesmen got their biggest separation from Park with a 6-1 run for a 10-5 lead. Park was able to get within three points on a few different occasions, but that would be the closest they would get. At 15-12, the Statesmen had a 3-1 run to reinstate the five-point lead. Park did not have another big run offensively the rest of the way, as another seven service errors plagued them. William Penn was able to finish things off for the four-set win at home, 3-1.
Park was led by Friedrich's 21 kills and two service aces. On the flip side, Friedrich serves were more difficult to control than normal as he had eight service errors as well.

Joao Infante and Leonardo Maldonado were excellent as well for the Pirates with 16 kills each. Maldonado and Infante also had identical number of digs with eight, and both were two digs away from double-doubles.

Joao Bonanoni was the only Pirate to have double-figure dig numbers, while Eduardo Sabi had a career-high 58 assists. He had 14.5 assists per set in the match, but also contributed in other facets of the game with six digs and a team-leading four blocks.

Ivanovic was second in blocks with three and he also was near double-digit kills with eight.

The Pirates look to recover on Friday at 6pm in Canton, Mo. to matchup with Culver-Stockton College. WATCH
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