The first of several ranked matchups for the Park University men's volleyball team took place on Saturday evening against the No.10 Missouri Valley College VIkings. Park would have tough competition in the middle two sets, but glided through sets one and four with relative ease to defend homecourt and stay undefeated in conference play. This win moved Park to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in the Heart Conference, while the VIkings have now dropped both of their conference matches and sit at 4-2 overall.
The Pirates got the scoring started in the first set with a double block from Moises Ortiz and Velko Stojic to let the Vikings know they meant business. Park would extend their lead to 4-1 after multiple service and ball handling errors by Missouri Valley. Later on, Stojic would grow the lead to 7-3 when he won a fight at the net against the Vikings' Arthur Martinelli. The Vikings responded soon after with a strong kill in the back corner of the court by Samuel Essilfie. This momentum would not last long, and Ortiz planted a kill straight down the middle in a hole left by the Vikings defense. After a couple more attacking errors by Missouri Valley, they would use their first timeout of the opening set, now down 14-8.
Over the next stretch, the Vikings would continue to rack up errors and were forced to use their second timeout now down 19-12. During that action between the two timeouts, all of the Pirates' points came off Vikings errors. Out of the timeout, Mihailo Ivanovic sent an overpass directly back to the Vikings side for his first kill of the match. Ortiz and Leonardo Maldonado followed that point up with a double block, and Umberto Caleca picked up the first ace of the match on either side to that point. This allowed Park to coast to a first set victory by the score of 25-18. Park only needed nine kills in the opening set due to the Vikings committing sixteen total errors in the opening frame.
The second set would begin on a more back and forth manner. Despite a couple back to back kills by Nicolas Tenius, Park found themselves down 5-4 before a block by Stojic tied it back at five per side. The Vikings would start to catch fire behind multiple kills by Luca Hasse. After going down 9-6, Park would use their first timeout of the set. This margin would grow before Park started to battle back with cannon shots from Tenius to get the lead down to 14-13 after an ace and kill combination.
This forced the Vikings hand with a timeout, but Park would eventually tie the second set after a block followed by a kill from Stojic. This was all part of a 12-5 run that saw Park take a 21-18 lead and gain control of the set. The Vikings would not go quietly, and the back and forth battle saw Park win a long rally and another point that was blocked barely out of bounds by the Vikings. Park would use their second timeout of the set at 26-26 and got two straight kills from Ortiz and Tenius to finish the set off in extra points.
The Vikings would not be discouraged after finding themselves down two sets, and they took a 4-1 lead after a Park service error. This lead grew to as large as 9-2 before Park fought to shrink the deficit to four points at 9-5. However, the Vikings would not take their foot off the gas and would eventually go up 14-7. Park would make it competitive late at 22-19, but the gap was ultimately too much to conquer, and the Vikings won set three 25-21.
The beginning of set four would be a critical juncture for both sides, and Park was on the unfortunate side of an overpass that snuck over the first wall's hands. However, Park would not blink at the adversity and went up 4-2 to begin the set. The Vikings would tie the set at 5-5, but Avram Bozovic came off the bench and provided some well timed defense with a right side block. This was the highlight of a 4-0 run for Park that forced a Viking timeout now down 9-5. Right out of the timeout, Ignacio Pedemonte came in the match and delivered an ace. Later on, Missouri Valley had shrunk the Pirates lead to a single point, and tied it at fifteen each side after a Pirates error. This would be short lived because Park proceeded to go on a 4-0 run capped off by two straight aces by Tenius. Park would never relinquish the momentum and finished off the fourth set with a 25-17 score to finish off the battle between top ten teams.
The Pirates had three players with double digit kills. Maldonado led the Park side with twelve, followed by Tenius and Stojic with eleven each. Ortiz led the Pirates with a strong eight blocks on the defensive side. This defensive effort was matched by Alessandro Gozzi who had twelve digs, the most on either team. The Pirates split time at the setter position with Jovan Nikolic picking up eighteen assists while Umberto Caleca picked up seventeen of his own.
Park will continue Heart play against No. 15 Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 7pm on Friday, February 21. Watch Here
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