The No. 5 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Friday to face another NAIA Top 10 opponent in No. 10 Mount Mercy University. The Pirates were held down early, but nearly pulled the improbable reverse sweep on the road, 12-25, 20-25, 25-21, 28-26, 15-17.

The Pirates are now 7-2 on the season with their first loss in Heart play, while Mount Mercy climbs to 8-2 and 3-1 as well in the conference.

It's a tough ask anytime you have to play on the road in the Heart, but especially against another national contending team. Park has lost its last two matchups in Cedar Rapids, but the opposite is also true and Park has an unblemished 8-0 record against the Mustangs all-time.

This was the season low in attack percentage for Park at .128, while being the second lowest hitting percentage for the Mustangs at .108. Mount Mercy started off the match with its best set of the match on a .310 hitting percentage and surprised Park in the first set with a 25-12 win.

A big run by Mount Mercy put Park in a hole in set two, turning a 9-7 lead into a 14-7 lead after a 5-0 run by the Mustangs. During the run, Park called both timeouts, which must have lit a fire within the Pirates as an 8-1 run ensued and Park tied it at 15-15. Mount Mercy regained the lead though and held on for the remainder of the set, 25-20.

It was also tied 15-15 in the third set, but the Pirates had a 3-1 run to over take Mount Mercy off of a Umberto Caleca service ace, 18-16. Three kills by Nicolas Tenius in Park's last five points was enough to force a fourth set, 25-21.

It turned out to be the ultimate battle in the last two sets, including 10 ties in the fourth set. At this point, Park's hitting percentage had risen to .250, while Mount Mercy was only at .025. Park had 22 total blocks in the match and the Mustangs had 13 in a very defensive matchup. Park was able to outlast the Mustangs in the fourth set though, as two runs were the tipping point. Two 3-0 runs first tied things at 23-23 and then the second 3-0 run finished things off, as Moises Ortiz and Ignacio Pedemonte combined for a double-block to make it 27-26 and then a Pedeomonte kill sent both sides to set five, 28-26.

13 ties and five lead changes made the fifth set, especially riveting. The second to last lead change came after a 2-0 run for Mount Mercy, and after a timeout, the Pirates went back-and-forth with Mount Mercy on seven straight points before regaining a 15-14 lead on a kill by Veljko Stojic and an attack error by the Mustangs. A timeout by Mount Mercy regrouped them enough to win the last three points for the 3-2 match victory, 17-15 in the final set.

Stojic was the leader offensively for Park at 13 kills with a .258 hitting percentage. He also was only two digs off of a double-double. It was a double-digit kill performance by Tenius as well with an impeccable seven block assists and three solo blocks.

Ortiz and Mihailo Ivanovic were great at the net with five and nine total blocks as well. Ortiz has been an offensive threat as well with eight kills in the match.

Pedemonte and Rodrigo Macedo were up there in digs, as Macedo led Park with nine digs and Pedemonte was at eight.

Caleca contributed 33 assists with seven digs, four blocks, and Park's lone service ace in the match.

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