The Park University Women’s Volleyball team entered this year with one main goal in mind. That goal is to win the National Tournament.

The Pirates finished the season last year with a record of 27-11. They have already tied their record of wins this year and five games are left before conference play. The No.14 team in the nation right now is the Pirates and their record is 27-3.

The senior leadership of Lauren Purdy, Kat Partridge, Melissa Honn and Pamela Lima lead the Pirates and juniors are Juliana Barros, Wanessa Siquiera and Toi Collins. The sophomores are Raissa Herczfeld, Christina Runyon and Jess Ferguson. Lastly, the freshmen are Daniela Durante, Lauren Ochipinto, Bruna Bon and Alyssa Hensley. The team is led by Head Coach Mike Talamantes.

Coming off of an upsetting loss to Grand View University of Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 19, which snapped the Pirates 16 game winning-streak, they hosted the No.6 team in nation MidAmerica-Nazarene (20-1) on Oct. 22.

The Park University Pirates were ranked No.10 before the loss to Grand View and it dropped them down four spots.

Recently, the women went head-to-head with MidAmerica Nazarene University. MNU won the first set. The next two sets belonged to Park University needing only one set to win the game. MNU fought hard to send it to the fifth and final set which they did.

MNU went on a quick 4-1 run before coach Talamantes called a time out. The last set is the first to 15. The Women’s Volleyball team faced adversity the whole night but fed off of the crowds amazing energy. The Pirates won the set 15-10 knocking off the No.6 team in the nation.

Richard McCord, a sophomore majoring in criminal justice, said the energy in Breckon Center for the women was “outstanding.”

“They are great on and off the court which brings energy from the crowd,” he said. “We feed off of their energy which causes them to feed off us and they win almost all the time.”

The team’s next game is in Columbia, Mo, to face the No.22 ranked Columbia Cougars this Friday, Oct. 25.