(Mesa, AZ) The Park University Gilbert volleyball team did everything it could to give head coach Stephanie Lindsey a few gray hairs tonight as it won a thrilling five-set match 3-2 (25-11, 25-20, 19-25, 23-25, 15-12) over UC Merced at Legacy Sports Park on the Athletes Unlimited court.
The Buccaneers see their overall record move to 7-9 while they even their conference record at 5-5. UC Merced drops to 6-4 in conference and 7-14 overall.
Park Gilbert has never lost to UCM in seven matches and this was the second five-set match in the history of the series. The first one was in the very first match between the two teams back in 2021.
The Bucs got off to an impressive start winning the first set 25-11. The Bucs had 14 kills and hit .370 while the Bobcats only managed two kills for the entire set.
Set two saw the Bobcats settle in and play much better as the set had seven ties as the score got to 15-15. Park finished the set with a 10-5 run assisted by eight UCM errors.
As a Buc fan you had to feel pretty confident it would be a short night as Park is undefeated when winning the first two sets in its history. There have been 52 times the Bucs have won the first two sets in a match. 47 times they have gone on to win in straight sets. The other five times the Bucs won in four sets and had never been taken to five sets in this scenario, until tonight.
The third and fourth sets saw an uptick in play from UC Merced as they had 27 kills and only eight errors over the two sets. In addition, the Bobcat defense stepped up and made some spectacular rally saving digs. Park combined for 23 kills and 10 errors and they fell in the third set 25-19 and had opportunities in the fourth. Tied at 22-all a poor set and a service ace put them on the brink of a fifth set. A Railey Druxman kill staved it off for a point before a Merced kill sent them to a final set.
Merced elected to serve to start the set and won the opening point. Sometimes winning the opening point can make a world of difference in a deciding set. UCM won the opening point in each of the five sets in the match. Tonight, it did not make a major difference. The Bucs went on a 4-1 run to take the lead and despite one tie at 5-5 never trailed again. A 4-0 run at 5-5 gave the Bucs some breathing room at 9-5 before the Bobcats answered with a 3-0 run of their own. Lindsey could have called for a time out but let her troops work through the adversity and it paid off. Three Druxman kills and two UCM errors gave Park five match points to play with to close things out. They used up four of them before Druxman put the match away for good with her 16th kill of the evening.
Park won the statistical battle in kills (53-44), aces (10-6), assists (48-41) and digs (77-70).
Druxman led all players with 16 kills, Mallory Turner continued her spectacular week with 13 kills and hit .500.
Makayla Simmons had 20 digs her second 20 or more dig match of the season. Daniella Miranda-Johnson had 27 assists. Lexi Golleher and Druxman each had three aces.
The Bucs are now halfway through the season and find themselves in sixth place in conference with a 5-5 mark, tied with Simpson which would be good enough to make the tournament if the season ended today. When they return to action they will host La Sierra, Westcliff and Antelope Valley on October 12-14. The Bucs went 2-1 against these three teams earlier in the season, beating La Sierra and Antelope Valley and losing in five sets to Westcliff.
Press Release courtesy of Park University Athletics – Preston English
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