St. Louis, Mo. - The Missouri Baptist men's volleyball team was coming off an impressive 3-1 record in the Lindenwood Tournament. The team continued its winning ways defeating Hannibal-LaGrange at home 25-21, 25-23, 22-25 and 25-18.
Even though the Trojans were having a slow start to their season, the Spartans still didn't overlook them. The first set, started out well for Hannibal-LaGrange, jumping out to a 9-12 lead. A kill by Jordan Pinto, gave the Spartans a 20-19 edge after battling back from a slow start. The team went on to win closing out the set on a 5-1 run. The Spartans had a kill advantage of 16-5.
The second set, started out better for the Spartans grabbing a 14-10 lead after a kill by Gustavo Cintron, who had a game high 15 kills. The Trojans stormed back and evened the score up at 21-21. Another important kill by Jordan Pinto, who had 11 for the game, ended the set giving the Spartans a two game advantage in hopes of a clean sweep.
Hannibal-LaGrange wasn't going to leave quietly. The Trojans started hot again, taking the crowd out of the game. The Spartans took a 16-15 lead, after a kill by Jonathan Roldan. Both teams didn't give each other an edge, until the Trojans took a 21-22 lead and closed out the third set easily. HLG had a kill advantage of 10-11.
The fourth set was all Spartans, as the team dominated from start to finish winning the match on a kill from Cintron. Missouri Baptist had only one error in the final set.
Senior Jonathan Roldan was second on the team in kills with 14 and in digs with 13. Robert Esser added 46 assists offensively and Travis Collard led the way with 19 digs.
The teams' record moves to 9-4 and have an important match-up at #1 ranked St. Ambrose University on February 10th at 7:00 p.m.
