ST. LOUIS – [GAME 1 STATS] [GAME 2 STATS] The No. 4 ranked Missouri Baptist Spartans split their first two games at the Grand View Tournament. MBU defeated No. 7 Lourdes 3-2 (25-16, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 15-10) before falling to No. 1 Grand View 3-1 (18-25, 18-25, 25-20, 20-25).
MBU jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Grey Wolves. The Spartans hit .393 and .368 as a team in those first two sets. Those numbers dropped to .171 and .080 in the following two sets to help Lourdes tie the game and force a fifth and final set.
The Spartan attack came back alive in that set, posting 10 kills on 15 swings to help take the 15-10 win. Mico Janicijevic led the way with 19 kills for MBU, while Luka Cajic and Drew Iliff finished with eight each. Kyle Foley helped distribute the ball to each attacker and finished with 44 assists. Robert Hall (11 digs) and Don Flemming (five blocks) came up big defensively.
The tables turned on MBU in the second game of the day against No. 1 Grand View. They fell in a 2-0 deficit and couldn't quite work their way back. After taking set three, the navy and white dropped the fourth set 25-20. The loss to the host school snapped the team's five-game winning streak.
Janicijevic once again led MBU in kills with 17. Daniel Prada saw considerable action against Grand Viw and finished with seven kills on 13 total attacks. No other Spartan had more than five. As a group, MBU hit just .126 for the match.
Kyle Foley finished with 32 assists and Iliff and Hall each had seven total digs. The Spartans will look to leave Iowa with a winning tournament record tomorrow. They face No. 2 Warner (Fla.) at 10 am.
