Park moved within a game of conference-leading East Ridge, but it took a marathon volleyball effort to do it Monday night.

The Wolfpack outfought and outlasted visiting Mounds View by the narrowest of margins, winning in five sets, 23-25, 25-23, 2426, 25-18 and 16-14.

The margin between of thrill of victory and the agony of defeat was razor thin Monday. The two teams were tied at 5-all, 12-all, 13all and 14-all in the final set before the Wolfpack scored twice to earn the win.

“We started off passing not very good, our confidence wasn’t well but once we saw how good they were we picked up our energy and came together as a team to fight and figure out how we could beat them,” said junior libero Megan Husaby.

Park struggled with consistency all night. The Wolfpack would follow a winning block with a serve into the net.

“We didn’t make it easy on ourselves at times,” said Park head coach Amy Johnson. “It’s something that we talk about all the time, We work on all the time. We just get too excited, like our emotions are too high. We’ve got to take a moment to take a breath when we serve. The serving game was probably the one area that really caused us trouble today.

“I mean that’s a good team,” Johnson continued. “That’s a very good team.”

Mounds View came into the match with an 11-6 record, but was just 1-3 in the Suburban East Conference.

With the win, Park went to 4-1 in the SEC and 13-5 on the season, a game back of league-leading and seventh- ranked East Ridge (5-0, 11-7). The win also sets up a possible Oct. 12 showdown with rival Woodbury (4-1, 13-7), but first Park must tackle a game at Stillwater (2-3, 6-8) on Thursday, starting at 7 p.m.

It was Park’s seventh victory in the last eight matches but it took everything the Wolfpack had to come away with the win Monday.

“Honestly I feel that we went into the match with not a lot of confidence and we just didn’t have that much energy,” said Park junior Camden Kemmetmueller. “But throughout the match I think each other’s energies and each other’s successes have helped us pick it up a lot.

“I think they caught us by surprise,” Kemmetmueller added.

Park won 25-16, 25-18, 22-26 and 25-22 at Cretin- Derham Hall (1-18-2, 0-4) Thursday.

Park defeated White Bear Lake (3-8, 0-4) in straight sets, 25-18, 25-20 and 27-25 on Tuesday, Sept. 28.

Park’s players celebrate an extremely hard-fought fiveset win over Mounds View in SEC volleyball. Photo by John Molene.