Eutectics Challenge No. 2-Pirates

After shocking the No. 8-ranked team in the NAIA with a straight-set victory over Missouri Baptist University on Monday, the Eutectic men's volleyball team travelled to Parkville, Mo., on Wednesday to take on another top-ranked Heart of America Athletic Conference opponent: the No. 2-ranked Park University Pirates (12-1, 4-0 HEART). Despite the Eutectic momentum coming into the match, the Pirates justified their ranking with a straight-set victory over the UHSP team, 25-17, 25-15, 25-19.

The Eutectics hung close to the Pirates early in the first set, tying the score at 1-1 and 3-3, but the Pirates eventually extended their lead to 13-8 resulting from strong attacking and serving by the home team. The Eutectics scored three points in a row from a Pirate service error, a kill by Connor Behymer (set by Cole Cwiklowski), and a service ace from Grant Hoover to get within one point at 15-14. But, the Park team followed up with four points of its own, including two aces from Leonardo Maldonado. The last three points of the set belonged to the Pirates, who won 25-17.

In Set 2, the Eutectics made up some ground after a 3-0 deficit to get to 4-3 (PU) following a kill by Hoover set by Xavier Gamayo. But, when Joao Friedrich stepped up the service line for Park, he rattled off six aces in a row to give the Pirates an 11-3 lead. The Eutectics eventually stopped the bleeding with a kill by Hoover, but the damage was done, and try as they might, the Purple and Gold could not make up the difference, falling 25-15.   

The Eutectics took their first lead of the night in the third set, winning three points in a row off kills from Hoover and Dickson Colado followed by a Pirate error to go up 5-4. The home team tied it at 5-5 and 6-6 as the Eutectics were able to answer each tie to maintain the lead. Down 7-6, the Pirates recorded two kills and a block to take the lead at 9-7. UHSP was able to retie the game at 12-12 and 13-13 off Pirate errors, but the home team attackers eventually found their mark, winning three in a row to get ahead 19-14, then winning six of the next 11 points, despite two kills from UHSP's Cooper Hansen set by Cwiklowski. The final set was the closest of the three at 25-19.

Grant Hoover led the Eutectic attackers with seven kills on 14 attempts with only one error for a .429 hitting average. Cole Cwiklowski totaled 17 assists. On defense, Xavier Gamayo picked up six digs, while Cameron Werner accounted for three blocks.

Joao Friedrich finished with 13 kills on 18 attempts with only two errors for the Pirates to average .611.

The loss drops the Eutectic overall record to 10-2 for the season. As the first Conference loss of the season, the Eutectics are now 2-1 in the HEART heading into this weekend with two more Conference matches in Iowa against top-10 opponents. They'll start the weekend off in Des Moines, taking on No. 9-ranked Grand View University (9-2, 3-0) on Friday, then head to Oskaloosa on Saturday for a tri-match with host No. 5-ranked William Penn University (8-2, 3-1) and a non-conference neutral site match against Morningside University (6-6).