The Park University Gilbert men's volleyball team dropped its second straight Cal Pac match, losing 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 31-29) to the University of Saint Katherine. The Bucs are now 0-5 and 0-2 in the conference. Saint Katherine moves to 3-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference.

All three set were close, but this was far from a clean match. Both teams had over 20 attack errors (USK, 27, Park 23) and both teams had multiple players who had negative hitting percentages. The difference came down to kills. USK had 40 to only 26 for the Bucs.

The first set was close, but the Firebirds never trailed throughout the set, as both teams struggled to find much rhythm. USK had 13 kills in the set to eight for Park and that turned out to be the difference in a five-point Saint Katherine first set triumph.

The Bucs finally got in front in set two, taking a 10-9 and holding on to the lead to 17-14. The Firebirds then went on a 4-0 run to retake the lead. The two squads would parry back and forth to 20-all before USK won five of the last six points to take the set 25-21. The Bucs were close in this set despite only having five kills in the set and six attack errors for a -.036 percentage. USK had 14 kills, but 12 hitting errors kept the Bucs in the set.

The third set was a doozy as it looked as though both teams had the set in hand only to have the other come up with the goods to stay alive. The Firebirds had a 20-17 lead before the Buccaneers went on a 6-0 run to take a 23-20 and were two points away from send the match to a fourth set. USK would come right back with a 4-0 run of its own to get to match point. But the Bucs staved off elimination with a kill. This began a dance of set and match points between the teams. Park had two set points and USK had four more match points before finally putting away the match at 31-29.

The 31-29 score in the third set was the longest set in Park men's volleyball history outlasting the 29-27 set the Bucs lost last year (Mar. 11, 2022) at UC Merced.

Ben Turcinec led the Bucs with nine kills, but also had eight errors. David Shafer and Nathan Smith had five and four kills respectively and one error each. Hunter Miller had 19 assists and led the team with 12 digs. Smith had a career high five blocks (1 solo, 4 assist).

The Bucs now travel to California to face off with Westcliff and Saint Katherine again on their home turf. They will play Westcliff on Friday, Feb. 24 and Saint Katherine on Saturday, February 25. Both games will start at 7 p.m. Phoenix time.