(Aliso Viejo, CA) The Park University Gilbert volleyball team ended the regular season with a loss at home to Benedictine Mesa 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-20) with the loss, the Bucs end the regular season on a four-game losing streak and finish with a record of 12-14, 10-10 in the Cal Pac Conference. Benedictine Mesa finishes the season with a 27-3 mark, 18-2 in conference, the second year in a row they finish with that record.
This match was littered with errors on both sides as Park had 23 attack errors with only 26 kills, while Benedictine had 16 errors with 30 kills. The Bucs tacked on nine serve errors and the Redhawks had five.
Benedictine played a clean first set with 12 kills and two errors, hitting .286 while the Bucs had eight kills and seven errors, hitting .027. This can account for the 25-13 win for BENU in the set.
The Redhawks came back down to earth in the second set as they had seven attack errors in the set, but so did the Bucs and Benedictine had four more kills (11-7). The Bucs kept it within a few points through the middle of the set, then at 19-16, BENU went on a 6-2 run to close out the set.
The Buccaneers outhit the Redhawks in the third set (11-7 in kills) but poor passing led to nine Buc attack errors and five aces for the Redhawks. Benedictine held a 23-14 advantage in the set before the Bucs went on a 6-0 run on Daniella Miranda-Johnson’s server and forced a BENU time out. Miranda-Johnson then had a service error and then the fifth service aces of the set for the Redhawks clinched the match.
The Bucs hit a paltry .029 for the contest, the third lowest hitting percentage of the year.
Railey Druxman let the team with nine kills and eight digs, while Mallory Turner and Megan Hickseach had five kills and Maggie Scranton had four. Miranda-Johnson had 20 assists and eight digs, while Hicks had three blocks.
The Bucs must now flush this performance and gear up for postseason play. The Bucs head to Saint Katherine for the Cal Pac Volleyball Championships where they will be the fifth seed and take on UC Merced in the first round. The Bucs split the two season matchups winning in five sets at home after being up 2-0 and losing in four sets at Merced last week. The winner of the match will have a tall order in front of them as the undefeated conference champs from Saint Katherine awaits the winner in the semifinals.
Finally, the Bucs honored four seniors tonight with Daniella Miranda-Johnson, Lexi Golleher, Maggie Scranton and Avery Turk playing their final home match. Miranda-Johnson, Golleher and Turk have been with the program since year two (2020-21), while Scranton came in last year. All have been positive contributors to not only the volleyball program but the school as a whole. They cannot be thanked enough for choosing Park University Gilbert and staying with the program for their whole college careers.
Press Release courtesy of Park University Athletics – Preston English
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