The No. 5 nationally ranked Park University men's volleyball program was in Breckon Sports Center on Saturday afternoon for a NAIA Top 10 matchup with No. 7 Missouri Baptist University. The Spartans got a jump on Park, but the Pirates battled to five sets before coming up short of a reverse sweep, 10-25, 23-25, 25-21, 26-24, and 12-15.

Park is now 10-3 on the season and is now 6-2 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference with both losses coming in five set matches. Missouri Baptist now has beat Park in Parkville for the second time in a row and are 12-2 on the season with an unblemished 8-0 Heart record.

Missouri Baptist had 10 kills with only three errors for a hitting percentage of .333 in the first set, but Park was off to a slow start with a -.259 attack percentage on five kills and 12 errors. It was 9-0 before the Pirates registered their first point and it was too much to recover from at that point, as Missouri Baptist won 25-10.

It was much closer early on in set two and after a couple ties with the score at 11-11, Missouri Baptist had a 2-0 run that put them out front for the rest of the match. Despite coming within one-point eight times from that moment on, the Spartans held on for the 25-23 win.

A couple of kills by Nicolas Tenius helped get Park off to a 7-3 start and a quick timeout was called by the Spartans. Alessandro Gozzi then brought down a service ace to go up by five. The Park lead hovered around three or five for the remainder of the set though, and Veljko Stojic kill and a service error by Missouri Baptist extended the match to a fourth set, 25-21.

It was an intense fourth set with six lead changes. Things looked to tilt the Spartans direction with a 4-0 run to make it 11-9, but a kill by Stojic and an attack error by Missouri Baptist tied it at 11-11. A couple of attack errors got Park some room to work with and then a block by Moises Ortiz and Bozovic put the Pirates ahead, 14-12. Ignacio Pedemonte and Tenius strung together three kills in a row to again give Park a two-point lead, 18-16. Out of a Missouri Baptist timeout, they eventually overtook Park 23-22, but again Stojic for Park delivered in the clutch moments with two kills and set up Tenius with the kill to even the match 2-2 following a 26-24 Park win.

Missouri Baptist garnered back some control in the fifth set with a 7-3 start and Park slowed things down with a timeout. The Pirates, down four, used a service error by the Spartans as a window to climb back in contention, as Stojic, Mihailo Ivanovic, and Umberto Caleca formed a wall for a block. Stojic came back with a kill to help Park come within one point and Missouri Baptist called timeout, 10-9. That would be all Park would muster though, as a service error by the Pirates and a double block sent it to a match point. Two points later a Park service error ended it 15-12 in the 3-2 win for Missouri Baptist.

Missouri Baptist hit slightly better in the match at .164 compared to Park's .123.

Park despite having a high service error number at 18 only had two more service errors than the Spartans. The difference could be seen in service aces as five more service aces were registered by Missouri Baptist with eight.
Tenius and Stojic were the leading offensive players for Park with 14 kills apiece. Tenius was approaching a double-double with seven digs as well.

Pedemonte led Park with nine digs, while Ortiz led the Pirates with eight blocks. Ortiz also had nine kills for the match to help the team.

Caleca in four sets led Park with 35 assists and had six digs.

The Pirates will face (RV) Morningside on Friday, March 7 at 7pm in Breckon Sports Center. WATCH
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