CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The saying goes it's hard to beat a good team three times in a single season. That popular notion rang true on Saturday evening for No. 14 Mount Mercy as the 11^th-ranked and lower-seeded Missouri Baptist University men's volleyball team won 3-2 on the road in the HEART Men's Volleyball Tournament Quarterfinals. The fifth-seeded Spartans, who were bested by the fourth-seeded Mustangs twice in the regular season, escaped Cedar Rapids with a 21-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13 victory.
 
Missouri Baptist extended its current winning streak to six matches and improved to 21-7 on the year. The Spartans also punched their ticket into the tournament semifinals where they'll draw a fairly-fresh rematch with the tournament's top seed – No. 3 Park (Mo.). The Pirates (23-1, 17-1 HEART) will be eager for the rematch since the Spartans dealt them their first and only loss of the regular season. Gametime for Wednesday's semifinal match has been set for 7 p.m.
 
At 22-7 overall, the Mustangs, who dropped to No. 14 in the latest rankings, will be on the outside looking in for an at-large berth to the NAIA Men's Volleyball National Championship.
 
Eerily similar to the match on March 11 in Cedar Rapids, the winning team had to battle from behind for most of the contest. On Saturday, Mount Mercy struck first with a 25-21 set win. The Mustangs took full advantage of the double-digit errors from the Spartans, which included eight attack errors, four from the service line, and two reception errors.
 
MoBap rebounded nicely in Set Two leading from start to finish. Playing a big role in the turnaround was the Spartans' blocking prowess. The Mustangs hit in the negatives (-.074%) recording eight kills and 10 attack errors, with six resulting in Spartan blocks. Recently named All-HEART Honorable Mention, sophomore middle blocker Michael Anderson paved the way with four blocks in the set, while David Rudic, Kyle Merzweiler, Auston Bonte, and Veljko Culibrk were in on two blocks apiece.
 
In a flip of the script, Mount Mercy jumped ahead early in Set Three and never surrendered the lead to the Spartans. Navigating without First-Team All-Conference selection Miljan Kastratovic, who went down with an injury late in Set Two, MBU had another error-happy set and just barely broke even at .000%.
 
The two evenly matched teams traded runs early in the fourth set. MMU's momentum came at 12-11 mark when taking its first lead of the set. The Mustangs withstood MBU tying the game at 13-all and 14-all and built a small margin at 18-15 with an Akeel Oxley kill. That would be the final kill of the frame for Mount Mercy as MoBap went on a 10-2 run to take the set, 25-20. Freshman Veljko Culibrk, who returned to the right side after Kastratovic went down, put down eight kills in the game-changing set.
 
There were several twists and turns in the tiebreaker set. MBU appeared to have the upper hand and clear momentum with Auston Bonte nailing back-to-back service aces to give the Spartans a 6-2 lead. Mount Mercy head coach Austin Filer took a timeout to stop the bleeding and the Mustangs slowly inched their way back. Eventually knotting the game at 9-9 on a Raphael Massara service run, Mount Mercy took its first lead of the fifth set at 12-11. Out of a Tom Young timeout, MMU's Akeel Oxley served it just past the endline to even it at 12-12. To make things more interesting, MBU forfeited the next point as David Rudic was penalized for taking too long at the service line.
 
Trailing by one, MBU wasn't going down without a fight. Auston Bonte quickly put away a kill to tie the game, 13-13. A long rally ensued during the next point and finally was put to rest with a well-timed tip by Veljko Culibrk. The freshman came through on the final point with an emphatic kill to seal the deal for the Spartans, 15-13.
 
Culibrk was a thorn in Mount Mercy's side in each of the meetings. Across three matches, Culibrk totaled 65 kills including his career-high 25 on March 11. The freshman from Novi Sad, Serbia hit .450% on Saturday and led all players with 22 kills.
 
Outside hitters Michael Olson and Auston Bonte combined for 22 kills but hit just .040%. Several Spartans pitched in defensively, including Olson and Bonte who contributed 18 digs between the two of them. Marko Jovanovic posted a match-best 15 digs. At the net, Michael Anderson led the way with seven blocks, while David Rudic, Kyle Merzweiler, and Bonte each had at least four.