ST. LOUIS – The No. 15-ranked Missouri Baptist University men's volleyball team has had a penchant this season for engaging in five-set matches with teams ranked or receiving votes. On Tuesday at home, the Spartans squandered a 2-0 advantage over (RV) Missouri Valley College but luckily held on to defeat the Vikings, 25-19, 25-22, 25-27, 24-26, 15-12.
 
Tuesday evening's intense win marked the sixth match this season that has gone to a tiebreaker set, including Spartan wins in five of them over then-No. 5 William Penn, No. 7 Georgetown, Graceland, (RV) Cornerstone, and (RV) MoVal. MBU's only five-set loss came this past weekend in Cedar Rapids at No. 12 Mount Mercy.
 
MBU did some heavy lifting early in Set One to spring ahead of the Vikings and led by as much as eight. Miljan Kastratovic and Veljko Culibrk combined for nine kills while hitting .571 in the 25-19 set win.
 
The Vikings jumped out to a few short-lived leads in Set Two at 5-2 and 9-6, both of which MoBap had answers for. Senior outside hitter Auston Bonte sparked the Spartans' second recovery with four points in five rallies, including a pair of kills and service aces. Albeit a tie at 19-19, the Spartans never trailed after the second of three Michael Anderson blocks in the set at 12-11. Kastratovic remained a go-to for setter David Rudic with six kills in the set, while Bonte found a little rhythm, pitching in five in the 25-22 Set Two victory.
 
The third set was full of ups and downs for the Spartans. With solid serving, including five aces midway through the frame, the Spartans used a 4-1 run to go up 19-15. They maintained a three-point cushion until 23-20 when the resilient Vikings made their move. With three straight points, MVC knotted the set at 23-all. A Kyle Merzweiler-Auston Bonte block put the Spartans one point away from a sweep. However, MBU couldn't finish it off. (RV) Missouri Valley scored four of the last five points to steal a 27-25 set win.
 
Set Four was another back-and-forth affair. Trailing by as much as five (15-10), the Spartans again used a run in the middle of the set, this time in the form of a 7-1 stretch, to avoid things getting out of reach. Tied at 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24, Missouri Valley forced the tiebreaker set with back-to-back points on an MBU service error and Marco Kost kill.
 
After a sloppy Set Four hitting .036%, the Spartans returned to their earlier form leaning on Miljan Kastratovic, who put down five kills in the first-to-15 set. The veteran outside hitter put the team on his back when they needed it the most, delivering the game-winning point at 15-12 with a clutch service ace on the Vikings' back line.
 
With a match-best in kills (23) and digs (13), graduate student Miljan Kastratovic reached a new milestone on Tuesday, surpassing 1,500 career kills. He recently jumped into the No. 3 spot all-time ahead of Matt Mahoney (1,463 kills from 2006-10) and Luka Cajic (1,361 kills from 2017-20). At 1,505 kills, the Budva, Montenegro native ranks behind just Jonathan Roldan (1,562) and all-time leader Mico Janicijevic (1,620).
 
Other notable performances in addition to Kastratovic included Michael Anderson with a career-high 10 blocks (1 S, 9 A) and four kills on five swings, Auston Bonte with a career-high six service aces in addition to 15 kills.
 
Next for the Spartans is a doubleheader on Friday with Central Christian College (Kan.) at 4:30 p.m. and a conference match against Graceland (Iowa) at 7. Then, on Saturday, the Spartans will look to end No. 3 Park University's undefeated run, which currently sits at 21 wins in a row.