Vikings Finish Regular Season as Conference Tournament Runner Ups

Men’s Volleyball | Thu, Mar. 30, 2023

Parkville, MO- The Vikings traveled to Parkville, Missouri to square off against the number one seed in the Heart of America Conference Tournament. The reigning champs were looking to repeat as champions after their thrilling victory last season. The Vikings competed in every set but were unable to complete the upset as the Pirates defeated the Vikings in 4 sets, 25-27, 28-30, 25-21, and 22-25. 

Set 1: Grand View University 25 | Park University 27

Daniel Wong (SR/Campbell, CA ) picked up the first kill of the game for the Vikings helping set the tone early. Teammates Daniel Galili (SO/Shomrat, Israel) and Bayron Valdez (JR/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) helped keep the early section of the match close as they all picked up early kills. Any time the pirates would go on a run one of those three attackers would step up and swing the momentum back toward the Vikings. The pirates would extend their lead to four late in the match, 20-16, and forced Grand View to take a timeout to regroup. Wong and Galili executed the game plan out of the timeout and quickly cut the lead down before Nickolas Lima (FR/Curitiba, Brazil ) tied it up with an ace. The teams traded points before Park took a timeout with the Vikings leading 23-22. Valdez and Galili would add on kills at the end, but it would not be enough to close out set number one as the Pirates escape with a 27-25 win. 

Set 2: Grand View University 28 | Park University 30

The Pirates would start the second set out with a short little run before Lima stepped up and gave the Vikings a big kill. Wong would help a little bit, but the Vikings had to take a timeout to help reset their offense. The timeout worked as they picked up 4 straight points after the timeout cutting the lead to 2, 17-15. Wong collected 2 more kills to rally the Vikings before Valdez scored forcing the Pirate timeout. Valdez would pick up 4 of the last five kills of the set with help from Zeo Meyer (JR/Wheaton, IL ). The Viking’s late rally helped force the set into extra points, but the Pirates would find enough magic to sneak out a second set win, 30-28. 

Set 3: Grand View University 25| Park University 21

Grand View was not going to go away quietly as they quickly took command of the third set, Nicolas Vattier (SO/Santiago, Chile) picked up the first two Viking kills giving Valdez the opportunity to pick up an ace to extend the lead. The defense would also play a…