Park women’s volleyball advances to NAIA national semifinals
PARKVILLE, Mo. — At the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship, No. 4 ranked Park University has advanced to the NAIA national semifinals as the Pirates defeated No. 5 University of Providence (Mont.) this evening (Thursday, Dec. 2) in the national quarterfinals at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa. The Pirates topped the Argonauts, 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 19-25, 25-18).
Park is now 33-2 on the season while Providence ends the year at 28-3. The Pirates are now riding a 30-match winning streak heading into the national semifinals. Park started the year with three wins, but lost back-to-back matches to then No. 3 (now No. 10) Midland University (Neb.) and then No. 9 (now No. 2) Viterbo University (Wis.) in early September. Since then, Park has not lost a match and has only dropped four sets during the streak. The Pirates have swept 17 of their last 20 matches. The Pirates are seeking the third national title in school history, having won the championship in 2014 (with a perfect 40-0 record) and 2018.
The Pirates will play No. 1 University of Jamestown (N.D.) (35-0) in the first semifinal match at 5 p.m. tomorrow (Friday, Dec.3) for the opportunity to play in the national championship on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Jimmies defeated the Bellevue (Neb.) University Bruins (26-8) 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 27-25) in the quarterfinals. The other semifinal match up, to be played at 7:30 p.m., will feature No. 7 Marian University (Ind.) Knights (35-2) vs. No. 3 Missouri Baptist University Spartans (31-2). Marian won 3-2 (30-28, 21-25, 25-19, 24-26, 15-12) over No. 15 Concordia (Neb.) University Bulldogs (19-11) in the quarterfinals, while Missouri Baptist defeated Northwestern College Red Raiders (Iowa, 20-11), 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19). Both semifinals matches and the national championship match will all air via stream on ESPN3.
In set one against Providence, Park jumped out to an 8-4 lead before Providence tied things at 9-9. The Pirates held a 20-16 lead, but the Argonauts came back to tie things at 22-22 before Park scored the final three points to end the set.
In set two, the teams were tied at 2-2, but that was as close as Providence got the rest of the set. The Argos got as close as three points with Park up 18-15, but the Pirates scored seven of the final 11 points to win the set.
In set three, Park held an early 4-2 lead, but Providence came back to go up 9-6. The Pirates were able to close the gap to 20-19, but the Argos scored the final five points to force a fourth set.
In set four, Park scored the first three points of the set and didn’t look back as the closest the Argonauts got was one point at 5-4. Park scored 12 of the next 15 points to take a 17-7 lead before closing out the match
For the match, Park hit .213 while holding Providence to just .155. Nada Meawad was the star for Park in the match with 28 kills, while Debora Bernardi had 13 and Caroline Moreira had 11. Vera Beltrame recorded 51 assists and Noura Meawad had 24 digs.
For more information about the national tournament, visit https://www.naia.org/sports/wvball/index.
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