The Park University women's volleyball program traveled to St. Louis, Mo. to complete the Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season on Saturday night, falling in a five set battle with No. 17 Missouri Baptist University, 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 9-25, 7-15.

The Pirates close out the regular season at 17-8 and 13-5 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, while the Spartans move up to 26-5 on the season and 17-1 in the Heart and were named 2025 Co-Regular Season Heart Champions with No. 24 Grand View University. The Pirates were playing for an opportunity to host a Heart Conference Tournament Quarterfinal match on Saturday, but settle for the No. 5 seed in the tournament. This will be the first time since joining the Heart that the Pirates will not host a conference quarterfinal.

Park is now 2-5 in five set matches this year.

The Pirates came out firing in the match with a .312 hitting percentage, but as the match continued that slowly dropped to .267 and .171 in sets two and three. The Pirates had a harder time in sets four and five and finished the match with a .186 hitting percentage compared to .324 for Missouri Baptist.

Missouri Baptist got out to a 7-4 lead, which signaled a timeout from Park. After the timeout, the Pirates got a big rally going for a 6-1 run, including kills by Angelina Rodriguez, an ace from Silvia Albani, and a kill from Indi Zetic, 10-8. Missouri Baptist would regain the lead in the middle of the set, but the Pirates had another big push with a 5-1 run to take a 19-17 lead, Albani again making magic happen with two more service aces in this span. The Spartans would tie it twice, but Park stayed focused with a kill by Rodriguez and a double-block by Albani and Elisa Dalla Pozza, 25-23. 

In set two, another Park timeout helped regroup efforts and led to a 4-0 run for a 12-9 lead. Park would continue to stay ahead by about two points, until the Spartans tied things at 18-18. It did not end how the Pirates would have hoped with a 7-2 Spartan run for the second set, 25-20.

The Pirates were unphased by the adversity and built up an 11-6 lead after a 3-0 run off of a service error and two attack errors by the Spartans. Rodriguez and Zetic made sure to leave there mark on set three with a pair of kills and a service ace in a 3-0 run for a 14-8 lead to force a Spartan timeout. Park led by as much as seven points in the set, as a final kill by Zetic stamped another win for Park for a 2-1 lead in the match, 25-19.

An 8-0 run by the Spartans took the wind out of the sales a bit for the Pirates and big run after big run by Missouri Baptist led to a 25-9 fourth set win. The Spartans, now with momentum on their side, took a 3-0 lead in the fifth. Daniela Gomez, Rodriguez, and Zetic each tacked on kills to keep the score within two points, but at 7-5 the Spartans took off for a 7-0 run for the eventual 15-7 win. 

Zetic in her second night in a row of 19 kills led the Pirates offensively and added six digs to the Pirate cause. 

Rodriguez had her third highest production of the season with 14 kills on the night and hit .297 on only three errors. 

Gomez was close to double-figures with nine kills in the game, meanwhile Albani with five service aces for the game, also had a double-double with 39 assists and 11 digs.

Alvarez led Park with 12 digs and Isadora Dias contributed three blocks during the action.

The Pirates are going to Fayette, Mo. to start the Heart Conference Quarterfinals on Saturday, November 8 against No. 4 Central Methodist University at 7pm. In the only contest this season between the Pirates and Eagles, Central Methodist edged Park in a close five set battle in Parkville, Mo. WATCH
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