(San Marcos, CA) The Park University Gilbert volleyball team has put themselves in the position they wanted to be in when the California Pacific Conference Championships started. The Buccaneers wanted another chance to go to the NAIA national tournament. They have done just that with a dominant 3-0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-17) win over regular season champ Benedictine Mesa in the semifinals of the championships held at the USK Sports Complex in San Marcos, Calif.
The Buccaneers move to 23-10 overall on the season, Benedictine Mesa takes just its sixth loss of the year (24-6).
By virtue of its regular season title, Benedictine Mesa had already punched its ticket to the NAIA national tournament. They did not have much to play for this afternoon. But the Buccaneers high level of play did not give the Redhawks much room for error to get a win.
When these two teams met six days ago, the Bucs struggled mightily in the serve receive game, making 15 receive errors. Today, the Bucs cut that number down by more than 50 percent with only six. On the other hand, the Redhawks had their own issues in serve receive today, as well as in their attack game, committing nine receiving errors and 21 hitting errors.
The Buccaneers controlled the tempo from the start. In set one, after dropping the first point, the Bucs when on an 11-3 run and never looked back. Jessie Medlin posted five aces in the set. Park held a lead a large as 13 points in the set at 20-7 and coasted home. Park only committed two attack errors in the set as it hit .364.
In the second set, Park Gilbert never trailed as they took their level up another notch. The score was 10-9 before park kicked things into high gear and closed out the set on a 15-3 run. The Bucs committed more attack errors in the set (4) then they did in set one but held the Redhawks to only four kills and a negative hitting percentage (-.100).
This brought the match to set three and the immovable object versus the unstoppable force. The Bucs came in undefeated this season (16-0) when they lead 2-0. Until last night against Embry Riddle, they had never even gone to a fourth set. Benedictine Mesa had not been swept this year in any of its five losses. The Buccaneers managed to keep its streak alive as it used runs of 8-1 and 8-3 to start their march to the Cal Pac Final.
Park Gilbert again dominated the stat sheet, with more kills (36-26), assists (34-22), digs (52-42) and blocks (8-2). The Bucs hit .280 as a team with only 10 attack errors to increase its season long hitting percentage to .258 which is fifth in the country.
Amanda Jonovich once again paced the Buccaneers with 13 kills and 13 digs which led both teams, it was also her eighth double-double of the season in 21 contests. Mallory Turner took her turn to dominate from the middle, with six kills and hitting .385. Railey Druxman also kicked in with six kills and was solid defensively with 11 digs. Annika Wallace has 19 assists.
The Buccaneers will take on the winner of the other semifinal featuring Westcliff and host school Saint Katherine. The Bucs split their regular season contests with both teams winning at home and losing on the road to Saint Katherine, while losing at home but winning on the road at Westcliff. The Bucs lead the overall series against both teams 7-1 versus USK and 4-1 against Westcliff. This was the first year either team beat the Bucs, so with an NAIA tournament berth on the line, they will certainly have the Bucs attention. The match is set to start at 3 p.m. Arizona time (2 p.m. California time).
Press Release courtesy of Park University Athletics – Preston English
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