The Park University Gilbert women's volleyball team opened its 2025 campaign with a daunting task. Put your best foot forward with a young and inexperienced team against two of the best teams in the country. The Bucs acquitted themselves well, but fell 3-0 in both matches, falling to Oregon Tech (receiving votes) in match one and sixth-ranked Southern Oregon in the second contest.

Match 1 – RV Oregon Tech 3, Park Gilbert 0 (19-25. 24-26, 14-25)

Bucs head coach Pisila Tukia wasted no time in indoctrinating her new charges into the fire, starting freshman middle Molly Aikens and transfers Ashley Estrada and Aliya Unseth. Altogether, eight new players saw action on the court for the first time in a Buccaneer uniform.  

In set one, the Bucs surprised the Owls early maintaing a three-point lead until 11-8 when the Owls went on an 8-1 run to take the lead at 16-12. The Bucs went on their own 3-0 run to cut the lead to one but would no closer as it would get as OIT went on a 5-0 run to extend their advantage and then closed it out with a six-point set win. OIT outhit Park 21-10 in kills in the opening frame.

Set two was a heartbreaker for the Bucs as they held the lead throughout the set until the very end. The Bucs held a six-point lead 20-14 and looked in good stead to take set two but the Owl produced a 10-3 run to retake the lead 24-23. The Buccos would tie it at 24 before a service error and an Owl kill salted the game away. The Owls once again led on the kill ledger 16-11 but they also had more errors (11-6).

The Owls rode the momentum of the comeback in the second to win the third set 25-14.

The Owls dictated play as they had 23 more attack attempts than the Bucs and it resulted in a 51-27 advantage in kills.

On the individual stat sheet, six Bucs had multiple kills led by junior Porsche Bauer and Keep Williams with 5 each. Right side hitter Kyla Knight along with Unseth and Aikens each had 4 putaways.

Sophomore setters Ashley Estrada and Miyah Vila each had 12 assists.

Freshman libero Elise Langley set a freshman record for digs in their first match as a Buc posting 15 digs which bested the mark of 12 set by teammate Porsche Bauer in 2023. Her total is the fourth-most in a season opening match in school history.

Match 2 - #6 Southern Oregon 3, Park Gilbert 0 (25- 13, 25-5, 25-13)

The Buccaneers faced off with the sixth-ranked team in the country in game two and the Raiders looked every bit as good as their ranking in the match.

Park only managed to score 31 points between the three sets and only managed 13 kills for the match, hitting -.123.

Freshman Naiya Moala led the team with five kills and hit a gaudy .667 for the match. Langley followed her record-breaking performance in match one with nine more digs in match two.