(San Marcos, CA) The Park University men’s volleyball team (0-7, 0-4) continue to struggle in the early going this season, dropping a 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-16) contest to Saint Katherine (4-6, 2-2).
The Buccaneers played a strong first set, holding the lead on numerous occasions. At 22-all a kill and an ace by the Firebirds gave them set point and they were able to convert on their second one after a Bucs service error. The Buccaneers hit .320 for the set with 12 kills. But the Firebirds were a hair better with 16 putaways and a .357 attack percentage.
The second set was another tight affair with both teams holding the lead early, before USK looked as though they were going to pull away at 16-11. But Park answered with an 8-3 run to knot the stanza at 19-19. USK answered with a run of its own, finishing the set on a 6-2 run to take a 2-0 advantage.
Yesterday after battling hard for two sets, the Bucs seemed to run out of steam in the third set. Today, the same thing seemed to happen as the Bucs hit negatively in the third for the second consecutive match. They only have three kills after combining for 23 in the first two sets.
Ikaika Stant led the team in kills for the first time in his career with eight while hitting .263. Nico Gutierrez had seven kills and hit .312. Ben Turcinec also had seven kills. Tyler Yu had 10 digs and Hunter Miller led the team with 14 assists.
Press Release courtesy of Park University Athletics – Preston English
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