The Park University women's volleyball program was on the road for the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinal against the top seeded No. 1 Grand View University Vikings. The Pirates were ready for the rematch and capitalized with a 3-1 victory in Des Moines, Iowa to move on to the Heart Championship, 28-30, 26-24, 25-22, 31-29.
The Pirates bump up to 19-8 on the season, while Grand View settles for a semifinal appearance with a 28-4 season thus far. The Vikings already were sitting on a co-regular season championship in the Heart and due to tie-breaker secured one of the Heart's automatic bids to the NAIA National Championship Tournament Opening Round.
For the Pirates, the Heart Tournament title would be their automatic ticket to nationals and Park will matchup with No. 2 Missouri Baptist University on Saturday, November 15 at 6pm in St. Louis, Mo. to decide the champion.

Park has been in five of the last six Heart Tournament Championships with four Heart titles on the shelf and this is only the second time Park has been the lower seed in the Heart championship match. Missouri Baptist will be in their first Heart Tournament Championship in their opening Heart season.

Both teams came out swinging in the opening set of the semifinal with 17 kills on either side. Both of these teams met for one match this fall with Grand View coming out on top in Breckon Sports Center in five sets. The Pirates and Vikings each had their fair share of big runs, but this was neck and neck the entire time with 17 ties. The first set went long with Park forcing three set points before the Vikings had two separate 2-0 runs for the 30-28 win. Park was led by Indi Zetic's six kills in the opening set.

The defense ticked up a notch in the second set with both teams hitting below .160. A 4-0 run by Park, courtesy of three attack errors by Grand View gave them an early 8-5 lead. The Vikings took back a three-point lead of their own at 20-17, but like the first set neither side would give in. Even when the Vikings had Park on the ropes at 24-21, kills by Angelina Rodriguez, Elisa Dalla Pozza, and a block by the same pair gave Park a 4-0 run. Grand View took a timeout at this point, but a bad set by the Vikings ended the second set, 26-24 for Park.

The Pirates had a no quit attitude and it showed late in sets. Again Park was down 18-16 late in set three, but kills by Zetic and Daniela Gomez tied it at 18 apiece. An attack error by Grand View put Park ahead by a point and then both sides alternated points until we were all tied at 20-20. The senior from San Antonio, Texas delivered in the clutch with back-to-back kills for a 22-20 lead. An error by the Vikings then set Rodriguez up for another kill to make it set point, 24-20. Nothing is ever safe until the final point and Grand View gained some ground with a 2-0 run, but Rodriguez was called upon again for another kill for a 25-22 set three win. Rodriguez surpassed her previous career-high for kills in a match of 18 on Senior Day against Central Methodist and replaced it with a 21-kill performance in a big semifinal moment.

The Pirates led by as much as six points in the final set with two 4-1 and 5-1 runs to reach a 20-14 lead. Out of nowhere, the Vikings hit a 7-1 run to tie it at 21-21. The fourth set was another wild ride a service error and kill by Gomez led to a match point, 24-23. The Vikings fended off Park on two match points and then took a 27-26 advantage. Rodriguez and Pozza took the lead right back with two kills for the 28-27 lead. It would be another round of alternating two points by each side that Rodriguez put Park in a match point position again, 31-29. This time though, a second bad set by Grand View would move Park to a 31-29 win and advance them to the championship stage.

Grand View had the advantage in blocking with 20 block assists to Park's 12 and both sides were extremely close in hitting percentage at .152 for Park and .150 for Grand View.
Playing as hard defensively as she did offensively, Rodriguez' 18 digs gave her a double-double. Zetic and Silvia Albani secured double-doubles for themselves with an impressive 27 digs and 16 kills for Zetic and 50 assists and 23 digs for Albani.

Isadora Dias and Pozza were close to double-digits offensively with nine and eight kills, respectively. They each contributed three blocks, which only was eclipsed by Zetic's four blocks.
Gomez contributed well for Park with eight kills as well.

The Heart Championship will be played at 6pm in St. Louis, Mo., featuring No. 5 Park and the host No. 2 Missouri Baptist. WATCH
BOX SCORE