creative writing - some peices have been published into The Stylus - recently ranked 3rd best college paper in the state of Missouri.

1. Max Miller<br />Park University Stylus<br />Park University Invitational <br />3/20/11<br />Park University Invitational<br />Parkville, Mo- The Park University Invitational started off with some unfortunate information coming far from the west, Boise State Broncos were scheduled to come take on our # 5 Park Pirates in a showdown at Breckon on 3/18/11 at 3pm. Due to unknown reason’s the squad had to cancel all games scheduled with Park and other squads. The athletic department quickly rescheduled the games and got the Invitational off without a problem.<br />However, this didn’t set back our team from achieving success. First up was Clarke University making the trip down from Dubuque, Iowa. Clarke a solid team this season came out firing defeating us 25-21 in set one and barely squeaked out a victory in set two 26-24. Getting his team motivated, Interim Head Coach Brett Fergueson redesigns his squad to fix the small mistakes on the court to capitalize on the Crusaders. Jake Penolio had 14 Kills giving him .524%, 2 digs and 7 block assists. Raphael Vieira had 12 Kills and a .409% along with 7 digs. The defeat of the opponents also came with the powerful striking ability that Erick Albuquerque displays every time when he drills the ball into an awkward position for the defense to return giving him 17 Kills for the game. <br />Park comes back and crushes Clarke 25-12 in set number three. Gradually coming back from a small deficient Park takes advantage of some service errors from Clarke and the Pirates take set number four in style 25-21. Thus, sending the two teams to a 5th and final match. Close match but the Pirates marched on by; defeating Clarke University Crusaders 17-15 and sending them back to Dubuque, Iowa. <br />With less than an hour for a break, the team was scheduled to play again against the Hannibal-LaGrange Spartans. Last time these two teams met, an ugly display of volleyball was portrayed by the asinine heckling from their players and crowd and the nasty flu bug that infested our bench with a Pirates loss. <br />Today was a better day all looked healthy for a spectacular show down of volleyball. With a nice spring rain started to fall and the essence of spring time bloomed into a warm, energetic atmosphere the game started off with a bang. <br />The Pirates came out for vengeance for losing prior in the season to the Spartans, defeating them the first two sets with ease 25-18 and 25-20. Then Hannibal-LaGrange seemed to light a fire on their bench and completely taking control of set number three, 27-25. Park did play point for point, but it just wasn’t enough, taking this nail biting game to the fourth set. Even this time, the double teaming from the Spartans noticed the amazing display of ball control our team can display, plus along with the powerful strikes from the roster making this a difficult but possible to control. Spartans took out the Pirates in set number four 25-23. The fifth and final match was much more fluent motion for the Pirates winning 15-9, sending the opponents back to the buses.<br />Jake Penolio had 11 kills and two Service Aces along with his accomplice Bosko Novovic with 10 kills and a .500 %, 6 digs. Erick Albuquerque had his usual standard game, contributing 17 kills and 6 digs. Philip Heckmann had the most impressive velocity in the Invitational, crushing the ball all over the court, landing devastating impacts on the Spartans confidence. <br />This makes Park University Men’s Volleyball team (18-7) on the year and (8-5) in the MAMVIC. Graceland comes to town 3/23/11 for senior night. Hope to see you all there!<br />--30--<br />