Kansas Wesleyan gave the fifth-ranked team in the NAIA a battle in the first two sets of their Heart of America Conference match. Park hung on and won both 25-22 and 25-21 before dominating the third set 25-14 on Tuesday night inside Mabee Arena.

Coach Dustin Sahlmann was pleased with the Coyotes' efforts, for the most part.

"I'm pleased with what we did in those first two sets against the fifth-ranked team in the country that is one hundred percent international (athletes), and we don't have any international experience on our team," he said. "I'm pleased with the effort and the ability to follow a game plan, but we didn't do it for 25 points, we didn't do it for three sets."

The loss dropped KWU to 4-6, 1-3 in the conference, while Park improved to 9-2 and 5-1.

Trailing 20-17 in the first set the Coyotes went on a 5-1 run and took a 22-21 lead. Park though scored the last four points, three on kills by Ignacio Pedemonte.

KWU led 10-6 in the second set and trailed just 18-17 when Park took control with a 5-1 burst.

Leading 7-5 in the third set Park pulled away on the strength of a 12-2 run and KWU got no closer than nine the rest of the set.

"We've got to continue to get better," Sahlmann said. "We've got to want points more than we do right now and things will turn around a little bit. We need to have faith and believe in what we're doing and knowing that what the coaching staff asks them to do is the right thing.

"We followed the majority of our game plan in the first two sets, and we were right there so I think that will give them a little bit of insight into this is how we need to be every day."

Wesleyan hit .173 percent for the match and was led by Jaron Lindsay's nine kills. Zayin Martinez was next with five while Ethan Rickets had 24 assists. Jeremy Lapeze and Justin Burras led the defense with seven digs apiece and Ryan Wagner had four block assists.'  

"Early on we blocked well, I think we impacted their offense more than they were expecting," Sahlmann said. "I felt we did a good job serving to the targets that we needed to serve at to allow us transition opportunities. And I thought our side-out offense was good but not good enough."

Park hit .360 percent and got 13 kills from 7-foot-2 freshman middle blocker Moises Ortiz.

The Coyotes play Missouri Valley at 7 p.m. Friday in Marshall, Mo. and Culver-Stockton at 1 p.m. Saturday in Canton, Mo. in their next two matches.