The No. 8 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program were on the road in Oskaloosa, Iowa to continue the post-season with the 4 nationally ranked William Penn University Statesmen on Wednesday for the 2024 Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals. The Pirates fell behind in the first two sets and took the match all the way to a fifth set, but William Penn stuck it out for the 3-2 win, 20-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20, 13-15.

The Pirates were knocking on the door to the Heart Championship match, but instead settle for a 22-7 record on the season with their hopes to be selected for an at-large bid on Monday, April 22 to the 2024 NAIA Men's Volleyball National Championship Tournament.

William Penn moves to 22-5 on the season and will face No. 1 Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa for the Heart Tournament Championship on Saturday, April 20.

This match had a similar feeling to the 2022 season, where Park and William Penn met in Oskaloosa for the Heart Semifinals. In that match, the Pirates lost 3-1, but later received an at-large bid to the national tournament.

In set one there were three aces for the Statesmen, while Park only managed one service ace for the match. The Pirates only had one service ace total for a match in one other contest this season against No. 1 The Master's University. Working against the Pirates were nine service errors in that first set as well, as William Penn earned the 25-20 set win.

The Pirates hit over .300 in the all sets, except the last, including hitting higher clips than William Penn in the each of the first four sets. Another five service errors were counted to the Pirates in set two and they would end up with 23 for the match, which is the highest since defeated the Statesmen 3-2 at home on April 2 when they had 25 service errors. William Penn got to an early lead at 9-4, but the Pirates went on a 5-0 run, highlighted by three straight kills from Joao Friedrich and one kill from Nicolas Tenius. After the 9-9 tie, William Penn captured the next several points for a 16-12 advantage. This once again was answered back by Park with a 6-0 run to claim a 18-16 lead over William Penn. A 7-1 run though would turn the set back to William Penn for a 25-21 win.

Six attack errors by the Statesmen stacked up in set three, plus the set ended on a double-block by Eduardo Sabi and Mihailo Ivanovic. Meanwhile, the Pirates were on a different level with 16 kills and zero attack errors for a .471 hitting percentage. Once again the set was tied at 9-9, but the Pirates went on a 4-1 run to retake the lead 13-10. Gabriel Soares, Tenius, and Friedrich all contributed kills in the span. Friedrich, the Heart First Team All-Conference member, continued to play a big part in set three with six kills and he finished with 24 kills for the match. William Penn threatened at the end with a 22-19 score, but Park took the last three points of the set for the 25-19 win.

Tenius, a Heart All-Conference Honorable Mention award winner, took off in set four with six kills. He also had career-high 20 kills in the match and hit an outstanding .562. The Pirates were able to score in succession with three 3-0 runs and a 4-0 scoring spurt as well. At this time both teams settled down on serves with only two service errors per team in set four. The Pirates had three blocks in the set and had eight total for the match. In the middle of the set, the Pirates worked their way to a six-point lead, 19-13, and despite a 4-1 run by William Penn, the Pirates kept their composure to force a fifth set, 25-20.

Two early attack errors by Park and another two blocks by William Penn got the Statesmen out to a good start. At 8-4, the Pirates took a timeout and while the Pirates took the next two points, the Statesmen answered right back for a 10-6 lead. It continued to be back-and-forth and with the Statesmen leading by five, 13-8, Park went on a 5-1 scoring runaided by a service error, bad set, and blocking error to make it 14-13. William Penn took a timeout with the one-point lead and came out of it with a kill for match point, 15-13.

Park hit .375 for the match, while William Penn hit .246. 13 service aces for William Penn were big for them in the match to counteract their lower hitting percentage.

Sabi, the Heart Setter of the Year, made a statement with a new career-high with 65 assists.

The senior, Gabriel Soares was the only other Pirate in double-figure scoring with 12 kills in the match and also had five digs.

Joao Bonanoni led the Pirates with nine digs in the match, while Friedrich and Tenius didn't take breaks defensively and were each three digs shy of double-doubles with seven digs for the match.

Friedrich, Carston Wellong, and Ivanovic led the blocking effort with four, four, and three block assists each.

All Park can do now is wait, as the 2024 NAIA Men's Volleyball Selection Show takes place on Monday, April 22 at 4pm (CT).  WATCH
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