The Park University women's volleyball program collected the sweep over Baker University on the road in Baldwin City, Kan. on Saturday to open Heart of America Athletic Conference play, 25-9, 25-21, 25-21.
Park moves to 4-1 on the season, while Baker now has a similar 4-2 record. This is Park's second sweep on the year and only the second time they have gone to the minimum of three sets. Despite this, the Pirates earned a new season high with eight aces against the Wildcats. Park also holds a 16-match win streak over the Wildcats going back to 2009.
Three of these service aces came in the first set for Park, by both freshman
Ella Schwalm and
Indi Zetic. In the first 12 points for Park, six of them came off of a Baker attack error and there was an addtional block for Park by
Angelina Rodriguez and
Isadora Dias. The slow start for the Wildcats proved detrmental in the first set as Park was ahead 12-1 in a blink of an eye. Park would keep Baker within 10 points in the first set with a 25-9 victory.
The Pirates tacked on two early service aces by Schwalm and Zetic in set two followed up by a Dias kill to extend the lead to 7-2. Another 3-1 run by Park forced a Baker timeout at 10-3, Pirates. Eventually, the Wildcats rallied and came within three points at 17-14. Back-to-back kills down the stretch by
Visnja Canak got back to a five-point lead at 21-16, but the Wildcats gained some late momentum with a 3-0 run to make it 22-21, Park. The Pirates mirrored the Wildcats with a 3-0 run themselves, including a silencing double-block by Zetic and
Trinity Iverson. Zetic and
Daniela Gomez cleaned up the last two points with kills to put Park up 2-0, 25-21.
In the third set, Baker held the 7-6 lead after a 4-0 run, one of the few leads they held in the match. The set was tied four times in the subsequent plays, before the Pirates mutiny of the Wildcats took full affect with a 6-1 run to make it 17-12. This time the Pirates prevented Baker from making any comebacks, as Zetic closed out the match with a kill.
The Pirates hit .198 for the match, while the Wildcats were nuetral at 0.
Gomez led the Pirates offensively with 11 kills and earned a double-double on 10 digs. Dias and Zetic provided additional offense with eight and seven kills, respectively.
There was a mix of senior setters who made appearances, including 25 assists from
Jullia Alvarez and 10 from
Angelina Rodriguez.
Zetic led the Pirates with four service winners and Schwalm was right there with three. Schwalm was working overtime with 18 digs in the match, while Alvarez just missed on a double-double with nine digs.
Iverson and Zetic formed a wall at the net with four blocks for Iverson and three for Zetic.
Park will make their way to Benedictine College, a rematch of last year's Heart Semifinal matchup, in Atchison, Kan. at 7pm to continue Heart play.
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