While Missouri Baptist Men's Volleyball remains undefeated at home this season, its success on the road has been a different story. Unfortunately, the struggles away from the SRC continue to mount as the 11^th-ranked Spartans went 1-2 during their three-game road swing this week.
 
They were coming off arguably the best back-to-back performance of any NAIA program this season with wins over No. 3 William Penn and top-ranked Grand View. The Spartans' Spring Break was spoiled by a five-set loss at (RV) Missouri Valley on Tuesday, squeaking out a win in five on Friday at unranked Graceland, and a straight-set loss at (15) Park.
 
(RV) Missouri Valley def. (11) Missouri Baptist, 3-2 [21-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-18, 14-16]
Tuesday's match at Missouri Valley had the makings of a five setter right out of the gates. The back-and-forth action ensued with the Vikings surging late in Set One to win 25-21. No. 11 MBU used a 5-0 run in the middle of Set Two to distance and set itself up for a 25-20 victory. The third set that ended 25-23 in favor of MVC was tied 12 different times and as late as 23-all. MoBap pulled away at the midway point in Set Four and forced a tiebreaker with the 25-18 win. The Spartans had MoVal on the ropes with match point at 14-13, but saw the Vikings deliver three clutch kills in a row to escape with the win. MBU never trailed in Set Five until Missouri Valley's match point at 15-14.
 
Miljan Kastratovic and reigning HEART Conference Attacker of the Week Auston Bonte led the Spartans with 15 kills apiece and combined for five service aces. Stephen Bilkey (12 K, .400%, 5 B) and Kyle Merzweiler (7 K, .333%, 8 B) were both key contributors.
 
(11) Missouri Baptist def. Graceland, 3-2 [25-12, 25-15, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13]
MBU couldn't have asked for a better start to Friday evening's matchup dominating the opening set, 25-12. The Spartans hit .524% with just on error, while the Yellowjackets barely stayed out of the negatives (8 K, 7 E, .040%).
 
Set Two was even more lopsided with Missouri Baptist holding a 16-2 advantage over Graceland in kills and a .290% to -.250% advantage in hitting percentage. The Spartans grabbed a two sets to none lead crusing to a 25-15 set win.
 
Things started to get sloppy for the Spartans as they combined for 24 attack errors in the next two sets including 16 in a 27-25 Set Three loss. The Spartans had to dig out of a large 10-2 hole to begin the fourth stanza. Despite closing the gap, Graceland led the entire set and forced the Spartans second straight five-set match.
 
Auston Bonte, who paced MoBap with 18 kills, had five in the fifth set to help the Spartans dodge GU's upset bid. MBU won the tiebreaker set, 15-13.
 
(15) Park (Mo.) def. (11) Missouri Baptist, 3-0 [25-22, 25-19, 25-19]
The misfortune on the road continued Saturday at Park as the Spartans led at the midway point in all three sets. Unfortunately, the 15^th-ranked Pirates had different plans on their Senior Day storming back in each instance to reverse the outcome from the first meeting between the two teams.
 
MBU held a slight advantage in kills (35-32), but Park was the better team serving and passing with six aces to the Spartans' one, and a 32-25 advantage in digs.
 
Stephen Bilkey was the only Spartan in double-digit kills with 11. With four blocks on Saturday, Kyle Merzweiler finished off the week with an impressive 21 total blocks (3 S, 18 A).
 
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Missouri Baptist closes out its regular season on Tuesday with Senior Night against University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy. First serve is set for 7 p.m.