The Park University Gilbert Buccaneers volleyball team got back on the winning track, sweeping Saint Katherine 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-19) at Bell Bank Park in Mesa, Ariz.  The Buccaneers up their record to 10-6, 3-2 in the Cal Pac Conference.  Saint Katherine drops to 8-10, 4-2 in the Cal Pac.

The Buccaneers have not lost to Saint Katherine in its history, coming into the match with a 6-0 record. But last year, the Bucs and Firebirds played two of the best matches in conference history with two five-set matches which saw both teams hold match points in the fifth set.  But today it was all Buccaneers as they played a much cleaner match, and it showed in the final result.

The Buccaneers have been plagued by errors all season but cleaned this up today, committing a season low 12 attack errors. As usual, the Bucs dominated in kills with 45 to only 24 for the Firebirds, plus they hit an impressive .384 on the afternoon.  This is only the fourth match all season where the Buccaneers have had fewer attack errors than their opponents.

One of the Bucs advantages this season is you cannot key on one player.  They have multiple players who can stuff the stat sheet daily basis.  This was certainly the case this week as Park Gilbert had three different players lead the squad in kills.  Today it was Miranda Bacon who had 10 kills, but right behind her were the two players who led the Bucs in kills the prior two nights.  Amanda Jonovich and Makenna Busse each had nine kills today. Busse, who set a career high with 17 kills last night versus Westcliff, set another career high today, hitting .900. She had nine kills with no errors on 10 attacks.

Defensively, Hattie Patton had 16 digs, while Busse, Bacon and Maggie Scranton had multiple blocks. Annika Wallace led the Bucs with 17 assists.

The Buccaneers now hit the road to northern California to take on Pacific Union, UC Merced and Simpson. The Buccaneers have not lost to any of these teams in their short history and own a combined 10-0 record against those three schools.