(Mesa, AZ) And the beat rolls on. The Park University Gilbert Volleyball team (20-8, 13-4) won a program best 20th match with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-12, 25-21) victory over Simpson University (6-11, 6-19) at Bell Bank Park in Mesa, Ariz. The win enables the Bucs to keep pace with Saint Katherine who beat Westcliff this evening knocking them out of first place tie with Benedictine Mesa.
There was not much doubt about the outcome of this match from the start. When these two teams met in September, the first set was a barn burner which saw the Bucs down a set point before eking out a 27-25 win. There was no such drama tonight.
Set one saw the Bucs jump out to an 8-2 lead and never look back. An 11-1 run at 10-5 put the Bucs up comfortably and an easy 25-13 set soon followed.
Set two was much the same as first, this time it was an early 10-2 advantage which led to another 25-12 set win. Between the first two sets, the Bucs had 28 kills and only one hitting error.
The Redhawks showed some life in set three and a few errors creeped into the Bucs game, but not enough to redirect the final result. The Bucs quadrupled it hitting errors in the set with four, but also had 19 kills as the set was closer; Simpson held leads of 18-15 and 19-17. But the Bucs finished the match on another 8-2 run to close things out and win their sixth consecutive match and their 18 consecutive set.
Park Gilbert more than doubled Simpson in kills (47-22) and had less than half the errors of the Redhawks (5-11). The team also set a new school record for team attack percentage at .500 which obliterated the previous record of .431 set earlier this year at Pacific Union.
Individually, Amanda Jonovich led the team once again with 12 kills, but it was freshman Railey Druxman who put on a show on both offensively and defensively. Druxman had nine kills, hit .375 and led the team in digs with 15. That is the fifth time Druxman has led the team in digs and is the only player to lead the team in digs other than libero Hattie Patton.
Makenna Busse keeps putting herself at the top of the Bucs attack percentage charts. She had 10 kills with no errors on 11 attempts tonight for an .909 percentage with is second all time.
Miranda Bacon also had an errorless evening with seven kills and a .583 hitting percentage.
The Buccaneers currently sit in fourth place a half game behind Saint Katherine. If the Bucs win tomorrow, they will tie USK in record and move into third place in the conference race for seeding as they currently own the tiebreaker (fewest sets lost) over the Firebirds.
Tomorrow is senior day for the Buccaneers as they host Pacific Union at 7 p.m. at Bell Bank Park. Twelve Buccaneers will bid the program goodbye after this season and look to finish the week on a strong note.
Press Release courtesy of Park University Athletics – Preston English
