The No. 9 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program was in for a tight match with No. 5 Missouri Baptist University, and as expected the match went to a fifth set in St. Louis, Mo. on Saturday. The Spartans came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Park in five sets, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-27, 12-15.

The Pirates stand at 16-5 on the year and 12-4 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, while the Spartans retain their top spot in the Heart at 22-4 and 15-2 in conference play. Missouri Baptist has now defeated Park twice in 2025. Both of the matches were five sets, and as a matter of fact, all of Park's conferences losses this season have been five set matches.

Both teams hit similar percentages, .255 for Park and .271 for Missouri Baptist. Both teams had seven service aces and Park even had two less service errors than the Spartans.
Park had a good start and led 13-10 at the midway point, but The Spartans rebounded with a 7-1 run to take a 17-14 lead. The lead would hold up for the Spartans as the opening set came to a close, 25-22.

Park started off well in the second set at 5-2 and the Spartans then countered to tie at 7-7. A couple of service errors by the Spartans opened the door for Park and Adrian Figueroa put down a kill to give Park a three-point lead after a 4-1 run, 11-8. Missouri Baptist was only able to stay close to Park and despite coming within one-point at 19-18, the Pirates finished strong for a 25-20 win. Nicolas Tenius was marvelous from the serving line with three service aces to secure the win.

A 5-1 run again gave Park an advantage early in set three, 10-7. Missouri Baptist was able to tie the score twice, but the Pirates put it into overdrive with a round of kills by Tenius, Leonardo Maldonado, and Figueroa. Tenius was giving major problems to the Spartans with his fifth service ace of the match to cap off a 4-0 run, 15-11. Missouri Baptist got a 3-0 run to gain some ground on Park, but coming within three points would be as close as they would get, as Park took set three, 25-20.

Park continued to play keep away with the lead and neither side could get more than a two-point run throughout the fourth set. That is until, the Spartans, down 22-19, ripped a 4-0 run to go up 23-22. Alessandro Gozzi would get a service ace to force a match point, 24-23, but the Spartans went on a 4-1 run to tie the match up with a long set four, 27-25.

Missouri Baptist was able to gain the early 5-3 lead, which was extended to a 8-4 lead after a couple of Park attack errors. A Spartan service error broke up the run, but only for a moment, as they rattled off another 3-0 run for a six-point lead, 11-5. Blocks by Moises Ortiz, Figueroa, and Maldonado on match points took Park all the way to 14-12, but Missouri Baptist got the final kill to end it 15-12.

Figueroa was impressive with 20 kills and his second straight match of five total blocks. He nearly reached a double-double with seven digs as well.

Meanwhile, Caleca did get to a double-double on 49 assists and 11 digs.

A healthy pair of 15 kill performances were given by Maldonado and Tenius, and Maldonado also reached a double-double with 10 digs.

Mihailo Ivanovic led the Pirates with six blocks and was the final Pirate with double-figure kills at 10.

Park will be back in Breckon Sports Center tomorrow, April 1 at 7pm in another NAIA Top 10 matchup with No. 8 Grand View University. WATCH

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