The Park University Gilbert men's volleyball team split its last two matches at the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Invitational in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. The Bucs lost to Simpson University 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-17) before finishing the tournament with a 3-0 (25-22, 33-31, 27-25) win over Rochester Christian University.

The Buccaneers are now 3-3 on the season. With the win over RCU in just their sixth match of the season, the Bucs have already surpassed their win total from last season.

Here is a recap of the matches

Match 1 – Simpson 3, Park Gilbert 0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-17)

The Bucs were just not clean enough in their execution in this match and it resulted in a loss to the Red Hawks.

Park had 20 attack errors in the match to only 13 from Simpson. The Bucs only hit .119 for the match. The Red Hawks also won the kills battle 38-30.

Sophomore Dominic Smith led the team with 11 kills, but also made 10 errors. Azzlyn Potts was next with seven kills and hit .357. Freshman Matt Kendler had five kills.

Senior setter Damon Leavitt had 17 assists. Zac York led the squad with nine digs.

Match 2 – Park Gilbert 3, Rochester Christian 0 (25-22, 33-31, 27-25)

The second match saw the young Bucs take the floor and show they learned from their experience the day before as they won 3-0.

Despite the 3-0 score this match was a barn burner in sets two and three.

In set three the largest lead either team had was four points as RCU led 22-18. The Bucs worked it back to 23-all. Park held off four set points and Rochester Christian held off three set points before the Bucs closed it out at 33-31. The 33-31 score is the second highest score the Bucs have had in a set. It is the largest in a set they have won.

It looked like the Bucs would make easy work of the third set, opening up a 16-8 lead. RCU then when on its own 16-7 run to reach set point at 24-23. The Bucs again held off two set points before closing things out on its first match point.

Both teams struggled offensively despite all of the points. Park Gilbert hit .079, while RCU hit .040. The Bucs won the kills battle 37-31.

Individually, Kendler led the team with 11 kills. Riley Terwilliger contributed nine kills. Brian Wells had six kills, but set a school record with four solo blocks. Kendler tied the old solo blocks record with three.

Jeff Agcaoili set a career high with 16 digs in the match.

Up Next

The Bucs finish their Indiana road trip by traveling to Richmond, Ind., to face Indiana University East tomorrow at 12 p.m. Arizona time.