The No. 8 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program upset the No. 5 ranked William Penn University Statesmen on Tuesday evening in five sets in front of a spirited Breckon Sports Center crowd, 25-20, 25-10, 22-25, 22-25, 15-12.

Park pushes up to 19-5 on the year with a big win in Heart of America Athletic Conference play taking them to 11-4. William Penn is still in the lead in the Heart at 13-3 in conference play and have a 20-4 regular season record. Park, No. 4 Grand View, and No. 12 Missouri Valley are all in the hunt with records of 12-4 for Grand View and 11-4 for Missouri Valley.

Park went four sets in the loss earlier in the season to the Statesmen, but got the satisfying home victory last night, giving them a 12-1 home record on the season. All of William Penn's conference losses have been to the top four teams in the Heart on the road and have an 8-0 record in Oskaloosa, Iowa this season.

Park's hitting percentage dropped below .300 in only two sets in the match and had their largest hitting percentage in the second set with a .455. The Statesmen hit .440 in the fourth set, but were below .100 in three of the five sets overall. Park for the match closed out with a .297 hitting percentage, while William Penn hit .191.

The first set was an extremely was evenly matched throughout with nine ties and only one lead change, which happened after a William Penn service error and an attack error to give Park the one-point advantage, 12-11. There were a fair amount of service errors in that first set, with neither side gaining a real advantage by the end, seven service errors by William Penn and eight by Park. Nicolas Tenius and Joao Friedrich gave Park a three-point lead with kills from each player to make it 16-13. A 4-0 run to make it 22-17 capped off by a double block by Eduardo Sabi and Carston Wellong put the set out of reach for William Penn, as the Pirates started off with the 25-20 win.

The second set was a huge confidence builder for the Pirates, beginning with a 7-1 lead. William Penn was losing more ground to Park and burned their second timeout of the set with an 11-3 deficit. Out of the timeout, the service aces began to rain down by the Pirates, starting with two in a row by Veljko Stojic. After a series of subs by William Penn, Park kept the pressure on with difficult serves, as Tenius had four service aces within a 6-0 run to mount a 14-point lead, 20-6. Park left no doubt in set two with a 25-10 win.

Sets three and four were once again extremely competitive with seven ties in set three and 10 ties in set four, including five lead changes in set four. The block started to become available for William Penn with four blocks in each of the third and fourth sets, and five blocks in the fifth set. The Pirates held a were down 9-8 when the Statesmen padded the lead to 11-9, at which point Park rallied with a 3-0 run for the tie. William Penn took a 3-0 run of their own to get back to 14-11 and their lead would hold until the Pirates went off on a 5-0 run to gain the two-point advantage 19-17. With the match on the line, the Statesmen once again took back the lead on a 5-0 run of their own 23-20, and closed out the set 25-22.

In the fourth set, momentum kicked the Statesmen's way yet again and despite gaining the 14-12 lead, a 3-0 run gave William Penn the 15-14 advantage. The next big swing was 3-0 run on two back-to-back blocks and a service ace to give William Penn a 20-17 lead. Park showed some resiliency, but the spread stayed the same and the Statesmen won, 25-22.

Joao Friedrich was the go to outside hitter throughout the match, but came alive once again in the fifth set to rally his team with three kills in the Pirates' first five points of the set for a 5-1 lead. Friedrich was one kill shy of his career-high for kills in a match with 29 last night. Somehow, William Penn had it in them to get another timely 4-0 run to tie at 5-5. Mihailo Ivanovic was big in the fifth set with two kills to give Park an 8-6 advantage. Coming out of a mid-set timeout, the Pirates responded well in a united effort with a 4-1 run to gain a 12-8 lead. Kills down the stretch by Wellong, Tenius, and Friedrich were huge in securing the last several points for the 15-12 win.

In the match, Park had 10 service aces to four by the Statesmen, but it was a larger difference in service errors with 25 for Park and 16 by William Penn. William Penn also had the block advantage with 14 for the match compared to six by the Pirates.

Park nearly doubled the Statesmen's kill numbers though with 68 registered by the Pirates and 36 by William Penn.

Maldonado was second in kills behind Friedrich with 17, a new season-high for the freshman. He also obtained a double-double with 10 digs.

Tenius and Ivanovic were up there in kills as well with eight and seven, respectively. Wellong made a big difference in the middle as well with five kills and five blocks.
Sabi, this past week's Heart Setter of the Week, was phenomenal with a double-double on 49 assists and 12 digs.

The Pirates will be back at Breckon Sports Center for Beach Volleyball Senior Recognition night happening moments before 7pm match starts with Culver-Stockton College. WATCH
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