Park University (MO)

The No. 1 overall seeded Park University men's volleyball program was ready to go in the NAIA Men's Volleyball Championship Semifinals in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Friday evening and dealt a decisive sweep to the fellow Heart of America Athletic Conference opponent, No. 4 Missouri Valley College, 25-14, 25-19, 25-17.

The Pirates are riding a 34-match win streak at 34-0 after the semifinal win. Missouri Valley drops to 25-6 with four of their losses in 2026 coming at the hands of Park. The Pirates had two 3-1 wins in the regular season over the Vikings and most recently in the Heart Conference Championship that Park won in Breckon Sports Center in five sets. Overall Park is 27-5 in the historic series between these two premier programs, but this is the first time these teams have met in an NAIA National Championship, at least since the new format in 2019.

Park has appeared in 15 semifinal rounds in program history, the first of which was 2001.

The Pirates had their largest margin of victory in this year's tournament, winning by 25 points among the three sets. Park had nearly everything go right. With 40 kills and only eight errors, the Pirates hit .451 as a team, while holding the Vikings to a .131 hitting percentage.

Both teams were getting their share of service aces, six for Park and five for the Vikings. The really staggering difference was blocks, as Park had 14 compared to only two for Missouri Valley. Of those blocks, Park's Moises Ortiz led the way with seven blocks. Mihailo Ivanovic and Adrian Figueroa were exceptional at the net as well with six and five blocks, respectively.

The usual Pirates were paving the way offensively, Figueroa and Murillo Silva. Figueroa had 15 kills for the match and Silva complimented that performance with 10 kills of his own. For the tournament the production from this tandem has been significant with Figueroa accounting for 40-percent (47 total kills) of the team's kills in Cedar Rapids and Silva carrying 26-percent (31 total kills).

Umberto Caleca led the hitters from the setter position with 32 assists and was second on the team in digs with six for the match.

Veljko Stojic led Park with seven digs and was the only Pirate with multiple service winners.

Park will now have a short turnaround to face No. 3 Saint Xavier University on Saturday at 5pm in Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Overall Park is 7-0 against Saint Xavier with the last three contests being in a national tournament context. Most recently, the Pirates swept the Cougars in 2022 during pool play. Park is looking to gain its 6th NAIA Men's Volleyball National Championship (2003, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017). Saint Xavier is coming off of a 2025 Runner-Up performance at nationals. WATCH
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