Park University Women's Volleyball will enter the start of conference play next weekend riding a five-match winning streak after handling Mission University in straight sets (25-17, 31-29, 9-25) and Kansas Wesleyan University in straight sets (25-18, 25-23, 25-12). Visnja continued to scorch teams, as she totaled 11 kills vs Mission University and followed up with eight more against Kansas Wesleyan.
Indi Zetic had two outstanding matches with 24 kills in the two matches combined.
Silvia Albani had 26 assists in the match vs the Patriots and followed up with 19 more in the match against the Coyotes.
How it happened
Mission University vs Park University
Mission stayed right with Park to begin set one, as Park held just a one-point lead on the Patriots at 9-8. However, the errors started piling up for Mission, as three straight attack errors, including one blocked by India Zetic and
Trinity Iverson. A kill from
Indi Zetic and a service ace from Sarah Fernandez Villaverde extended the Pirates' lead even further, and three kills from
Visnja Canak and two from India Zetic in the set's final 12 points cemented the Pirates' set one win at 25-17.
Credit has to be given to a Patriots team that went right down to the wire with the Pirates in set two. Park grabbed an early 12-8 lead as India Zetic and
Visnja Canak continued to dominate the Patriots on the attack. However, after Park had a 16-11 lead, a string of Park errors led to six of the next seven points going to the Pirates and put Mission right back in the set. A few points later, Mission started another run and even took a two-point lead at 20-18. After that, it was haymaker for haymaker, and the Patriots and Pirates fought back and forth for the second set. Park had the set at set point five times, and each time the Patriots tied back up the set until finally, on the sixth set point, the Pirates found
Trinity Iverson in the middle for a kill and closed out a long set, 31-29. Mission held Park to a /167 hitting percentage after hitting over .400 in the first set.
Any chance of competing in the match for the Patriots was lost at the end of a tough set two, as Park straight up dominated in set three. Eight Park kills in the first 19 points of set three gave the Pirates a commanding 14-5 lead. Frankly, the rest of the set wasn't any better for Mission, as Park tallied 12 kills on 24 attempts for a .417 hitting percentage, while Mission hit -.167 with just four kills. Park claimed set three 25-9 to finish off a straight-set victory.
Kansas Wesleyan University vs Park University
The Pirates and Coyotes each started blistering hot on the attack in set one. With the set tied at 7-7, all seven of the Pirates' points came from kills, including three from each of
Visnja Canak and
Kennedy Altic, and five of the Coyotes' seven points started out with kills as well. The big difference in set one happened a couple of points later, as the Pirates went on a crucial run where they grabbed eight of nine points to build a comfortable 17-9 lead. Again, five of those points would come from kills in a set where they tallied 15 total kills. After maintaining the lead for the rest of the set, a
Kennedy Altic swing found the hardwood and closed out an impressive 25-18 set win.
Park had the momentum going into set two and used it to grab a 9-5 lead, but the Coyotes battled right back behind a pair of kills and a pair of service aces to tie it at 9-9. After that, there wasn't a run of more than two points on either side until the Coyotes strung together four straight points late in the set to grab a 22-20 lead. That's when Park responded with a three-point run of its own to take a late one-point advantage. After a kill tied things at 23-23, the Pirates rejected the Coyotes, once by
Elisa Dalla Pozza and the next time by
Trinity Iverson and
Indi Zetic, to send the Park crowd into a frenzy and steal set two, 25-23.
For the fifth match in a row, Park went into set three with a 2-0 match lead and didn't get comfortable. That ran out of the gates to grab a 7-1 lead, capitalized by back-to-back
Elisa Dalla Pozza service aces straight out of a Kansas Wesleyan timeout. All Park had to do from there was maintain the lead, and did just that. To cap it all off, the Pirates won the last five points of the match and ran away with a straight-sets victory to put down the Coyotes.
What's next
Park is red-hot after winning Wednesday night against Ottawa and losing just two sets in four matches in the 2026 Labor Day Classic, and they'll take that momentum in conference play, as the first conference match of the 2026 season comes September 11 inside Breckon Sports Center vs. Benedictine at 7:00 P.M. CT.
