The No. 8 nationally ranked Park University women's volleyball program had their annual Park Invitational tournament to begin 2024 Friday and Saturday. The Pirates looked in control for their first two wins of the season against Wayland Baptist University and (RV) St. Ambrose University, but Cornerstone University pulled the upset over Park to close out the tournament.

The Pirates are 2-1 for the first time in a Park Invitational tournament since the season opening tournament was established in 2019. The Golden Eagles of Cornerstone have done what only a handful of teams have done in the last decade, beat Park on their own home court. This now breaks a substantial 87 home match winning streak the Pirates have experienced in Breckon Sports Center.

Park featured some new faces in the lineup this season and with that comes the need to get in rhythm again. Park hit .173 for the tournament with their cleanest match coming against (RV) St. Ambrose. Still, the Pirates showed some impressive glimpses with 13.55 kills per set, 137 assists, and 22 service aces.

Wayland Baptist | 25-17, 25-20, 18-25, 25-22 | BOX SCORE

Despite having only a .90 hitting percentage, the Pirates were also able to defend well enough to stop the Wayland Baptist attack as well as the Pioneers hit .106.

The Pioneers' Fade Ogunbade had great showing with 14 kills in the match, but the Pirates have a lethal offensive weapon of their own in Grecia Ung who was the lone player with 20 kills. She nearly matched that total in digs with 17 for a high-achieving double-double to begin the year.

Park really turned the corner and got back to form in the fourth set with their highest kill total of the night with 19 kills as a team and hit .227.

There was an impressive showing from the serving line as well for Park with 14 service aces against the Pioneers. Five came from the transfer from Hill College, Daniela Gomez, and four more came from Ung.

Both teams had their moments defensively at the net with six blocks per team. The senior Amra Kovac had two solo blocks and a block assist to lead her team.

(RV) St. Ambrose | 25-19, 25-20, 25-17 | BOX SCORE

Park started right where they left off in their next match against the Fighting Bees, earning a .346 hitting percentage in set one. St. Ambrose fell to both Cornerstone and Park at the Park Invitational and went five sets in a battle against Wayland Baptist to move to 2-2 in the early going.

Park moved to 2-0 and laced double-figure kills in each set of the match, 14,12, and 13. Gomez and Ung were the go-to attackers with 12 and 14 kills, respectively. Ung had it working like clock work with an extremely efficient hitting percentage of .385.

Angelina Rodriguez, another Hill College transfer, was the featured setter for the weekend with 121 assists in the three matches, an average of 11 assists per set. She showed she's getting more synced up with the hitters with 34 assists.

The Pirates looked to be rolling in the match with sizeable leads going into set point in every frame against the Fighting Bee's for their first sweep of the season.

Cornerstone | 15-25, 25-22, 23-25, 24-26 | BOX SCORE

Cornerstone impressed each match and went 3-0 for the weekend and picked up an NAIA Top 10 victory. Besides having the higher hitting percentage at .237 compared to Park's .179, the Golden Eagles also had more service aces, less service errors, and more blocks.

The Pirates were only able to get three service aces down against the Golden Eagles, while Cornerstone got seven service aces across. It was also a bit of a surprise that the Pirates were polar opposites in the block than the Golden Eagles, only one total block for Park to 11 for Corner Stone.

Cornerstone had a balanced attack with two hitters in double-figure kills, while Ung was in her own stratosphere with 29 kills and nine digs.

Park only led once in the first set at 2-1, but after a four-point swing for the Golden Eagles the first set was all Cornerstone at 25-15. 

In the second set, it was much more contested, but still the Pirates had to fight through a three-point deficit at 17-14 before forcing a timeout by the Golden Eagles at 17-all. Three kills by Avery Caskey in Park's last eight points helped turn the tide for the 25-22 win. Set two had the highest number of ties and lead changes of the match, 14 and six.
It seemed like the best the Pirates could do was keep it close in set three as Park's only lead was within their first five points and they managed to tie the Golden Eagles four times following that. Their last time tying it would be 17-17 though with a three-point run by Rodriguez, Caskey, and Gomez. After that, Cornerstone responded with a 3-0 run that could not be overcome in the end, 25-23.

With a 10-8 Pirate lead in set four, things started to move in favor of the Golden Eagles with a 5-0 run to take a 13-10 lead. A 5-2 run by Cornerstone made things look bleak for Park, but there was still a lot of fight left in the Pirates, as they made move with a 7-2 run to tie it at 24-24. Mafalda Bras made entrance onto the court to serve for the first time in the match and delivered an ace to tie the game. Cornerstone was able to clinch the next two points though for the 26-24 match win.

Rodriguez secured her second double-double of the tournament on 50 assists and 15 digs.

Give credit on a great defensive effort from Jullia Alvarez as well with 18 digs in the match. For the tournament, she totaled 42 digs for an average of 3.82 digs per set.

Caskey had the first double-double of her career on 11 kills and 14 digs.

The Pirates travel to Miami, Fla. for their next matches in the South Florida Invitational beginning Saturday, August 31 through Sunday, September 1. The Pirates play St. Thomas University on Saturday with two more matches Sunday against University of Mobile (Ala.) and Florida Memorial University. WATCH HERE