Park University (MO)

The No. 1 overall seeded Park University men's volleyball program took on No. 8 OUAZ in the NAIA Men's Volleyball Championship Pool Play on Thursday night. The Pirates got their second sweep in pool play to advance to the semifinals, 25-20, 25-21, 25-23.

Park continues to go full steam ahead into the semifinals with a 33-0 record on the season, while OUAZ finishes their season at 20-7. This is the third matchup between Park and OUAZ in pool play, to which Park is now 3-0. 

OUAZ was held to just a .143 hitting percentage, while the Pirates were at .355 for the match. This difference could be seen in the blocking effort by Park with 10 blocks in the match to OUAZ's six. OUAZ held an advantage at the service line in aces with five compared to the two from the Pirates, while both teams were close in service errors 10 for OUAZ and 11 for Park.

The Pirates pulled ahead for a 25-20 win in set one, but had to battle through adversity in set two for a 25-21 come from behind win. In the second set, the Pirates went on a 7-2 run to overtake the Spirit in the closing moments. 

The third set was the closest of the match and was the best hitting set of the night for the Spirit at .134, while the lowest for Park at .226. The Pirates got to their largest lead with a five-point spread at 22-17 off of a 3-0 run on kills from Murillo Silva and Adrian Figueroa. OUAZ fought back with a 5-1 run to make it 23-22, but again the Heart Player of the Year, Figueroa, showed up in big moments with a kill to force a match point. The door was cracked for the Spirit to send it to a 4th set after a service error by Park, but OUAZ returned the favor to end the match, 25-23.

Figueroa led Park with 16 kills and Silva was next in line with 13.

Up front the Pirates kept OUAZ in check with the middle block presence of Moises Ortiz with six blocks in the match. Figueroa and Mihailo Ivanovic were contributing blocks as well with four and three, respectively.

Jovan Nikolic and Umberto Caleca split time at setter. Nikolic commanded the offense with 28 assists to Caleca's seven.

Alessandro Gozzi got his second opportunity at the national tournament with a team leading six digs.

The Pirates will have a rematch of the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship with No. 4 Missouri Valley College. This will be the 4th matchup between Park and Missouri Valley this season and Park is 3-0 in those contests. The NAIA Men's Volleyball Semifinal will be at 4pm (CT) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in Alliant Energy PowerHouse. WATCH
BOX SCORE