ST. LOUIS, MO. – Missouri Baptist men's volleyball swept the fifth-seeded Mount Mercy Mustangs on Saturday afternoon to secure a semifinals matchup against the first-seeded Grand View University Vikings. After set one needed extra time, the Spartans took the next two sets with relative ease to finish off the sweep.
 
The Mustangs, winners of their last four games, came into the Carl & Deloris Petty SRC with a ton of momentum and jumped ahead to an early 5-3 lead. A four-point run restored the Spartan lead and the two teams continued to battle into extended time.
 
Tied at 28, Drew Iliff finished off his 12th kill of the set off a pass from Jason Harman to give the Spartans a 29-28 lead. With the first set in the balance, Mount Mercy succumbed to the pressure sending an attack into the net to give MBU a 1-0 lead.
 
The home team came ready to play in the second set. The men kick-started the set with a 4-2 lead, extended the lead later with a 5-1 scoring run, and defeated their Heart rival 25-18 to put them on the ropes.
 
Down 13-11 in the middle of set three, the Spartans dug deep and ripped off eight out of the next nine points behind kills from Miljan Kastratovic, Daniel Borsi, and Milos Markovic.
 
Mount Mercy did not cave in, however. Down 20-15, the Mustangs found a way to battle back to draw within one on several occasions during the final few plays.
 
Unfortunately for the visitors, Markovic put an end to the comeback bid. The freshman continued to fulfill his role as a spark off the bench and finished off the match with a kill, sending them to Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday.
 
Iliff carried the offense on Saturday with 17 kills and a .455 attack percentage while collecting nine digs on defense. Kastratovic and Borsi were strong supporting players on offense with 12 and 11 kills, respectively.  Harman collected yet another strong performance adding 44 assists and 13 digs.
 
The opening serves of the Heart of America Athletic Conference semifinals is scheduled for 7 p.m. against the first-ranked and first-seeded Grand View University Vikings.