The No. 9 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program was in for a tough matchup with No. 11 Missouri Valley College on Saturday, March 15 in Marshall, Mo. The Pirates went all five sets with the Vikings, including one of the longer fifth sets you might see, as Missouri Valley won 23-25, 27-25, 17-25, 25-22, 19-21.

Park moves to 14-4 on the season and 10-3 with Missouri Valley after the split on the season, while Missouri Valley is now at 12-2 on the season with an 8-2 Heart record.

The Pirates trailed the Vikings for most of the first set, but came on strong with the score 12-9 with a 6-0 run to go up 15-12. Missouri Valley took the lead back though 17-16 after a 5-1 run. It continued to be tight as this one played out, but Park was only able to tie the score six times the remaining moments, as Missouri Valley took set one 25-23.

It was much of the closeness you would expect from the Heart of America Athletic Conference game of the week, but Missouri Valley eventually crept up to a 15-11 lead after a 6-2 run. The combination of Mihailo Ivanovic and Adrian Figueroa proved reliable for Park, as six kills in an 8-3 run overtook the Vikings, 19-18. Two more big swings by both sides put Missouri Valley up 22-20, but before you knew it a 4-0 run turned the odds in Park's favor with set point, 24-22. You guessed it though, Ivanovic put Park up 25-24 with a kill, and then Figueroa, last week's Heart Attacker of the Week, dropped two more kills for the 27-25 win.

It would be another close set early, but by the middle of the third set, the Vikings were building an 20-13 lead with a 10-2 run. Missouri Valley hit .600 with 13 kills with only one error on 20 attacks in the third set for a 25-17 win.

A 5-0 run in the fourth set put the home team up three, 8-5, but the Pirates carried out a 4-0 run themselves to take back the lead, 9-8. Both freshman from the Dominican Republic stepped up in set four, as Moises Ortiz and Figueroa accounted for 11 kills in the fourth set alone, four for Ortiz and seven for Figueroa. Nicolas Tenius, Leonardo Maldonado, and Figueroa did major work with kills in a 6-1 run to go up 21-16. Missouri Valley threatened late, but a service error ended it 25-22 for Park.

The fifth set was the pièce de résistance of the match though, despite both teams hitting under .100. Ivanovic had a kill followed by an attack error and a double-block by Maldonado and Ivanovic for a 7-4 advantage. Things did not look good for Park after an impressive counter by the Vikings with a 6-2 run to go up 11-9. Park would tie the Vikings five times to go all the way to 15-15. Ivanovic had a kill to give Park match point 16-15, but a service error tied things up again at 17. The Vikings did the same thing to allow Park to tie 18-18 and then Park had match point for a second time following an attack error. On their home court, the Vikings tied it by a former Pirate, Samuel Essilfie, and then two errors by Park ended the match 3-2 for Missouri Valley, 21-19.

Missouri Valley hit an even .300, while Park hit .253. A startling number was the service errors, as Park doubled that of Missouri Valley at 18 to nine, while Missouri Valley had one more service ace.

Caleca by far had his career-high in a match for Park with 66 assists, finding Figueroa 32 times in the match. In limited action this season, Figueroa's 32 kills is the most in recent memory for a Pirate.

Tenius and Ortiz were also in double-figures, 16 kills for Tenius and 10 for Ortiz. Ortiz and Ivanovic were strong at the net with six and five total blocks, respectively.

Alessandro Gozzi had 14 digs, good for his season-high.  

Park faces Ottawa in their next conference match in Breckon Sports Center at 7pm. WATCH
BOX SCORE