DUBUQUE, IOWA – The Spartans capped off their Iowa road trip on Friday night with their fifth consecutive win to kick off the new campaign. Missouri Baptist (5-0, 4-0 Heart) took down Clarke University (1-4, 0-2 Heart) in three sets.
 
The Spartans jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead before the home team battled back to tie things at seven. Five errors between the two teams put the Spartans ahead 10-9. Mike Jenkins tied it up for Clarke at 10 before a kill from Miljan Kastratovic broke it again.
 
The two teams exchanged points until the Spartans found breathing room after a service ace from Jason Harman, a kill from Kastratovic, and kill from Milos Markovic, and another kill by Daniel Borsi that forced the Pride to take a time out.
 
The Spartans went on to take four of the next points to give them set one.
 
MBU took an early 6-2 lead in set two, but Clarke battled back to within one. Kills from Gabe Norsigian and Kastratovic gave the Spartans some separation. A service ace by Daniel Borsi put his team up 11-6 a few points later.
 
Clarke responded with a small scoring run to make it 12-11 midway through the set.
 
Drew Berthlett stopped the run in its tracks with a kill off the pass from Harman. He then picked up a block on the next point. The visitors maintained a narrow lead until three straight kills and a service ace by Gabe Norisigian finished off the opponents with a 25-18 set two final.
 
The Spartans jumped out to another lead and maintained it for the majority of set three. Clarke, however, continued to play hard, pulling to within four at 19-15.
 
A kill from Norsigian off of another assist from Harman gave the Spartans their 20th point. The Pride got three more points off of two MBU mistakes and a kill from Timothy Meyer.
 
Another kill from Norsigian sent the Spartans on a 5-2 scoring run to end the set and consequently the match. The Spartans went on to win the set 25-20 giving them their fifth consecutive sweep to begin the year.
 
Miljan Kastratovic once again led the Spartans with 13 kills. He also picked up an ace and eight digs. Daniel Borsi was second on the team with eight kills and five digs.
 
Milos Markovic had a solid outing with seven kills and nine digs while Jason Harman did his job with 31 assists. Stephen Menzel was also notable on the defensive side with 10 digs.
 
Missouri Baptist men's volleyball has a couple of days off before they take on (14) Missouri Valley in Marshall, Missouri on Tuesday. The opening serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.