ST. LOUIS – The No. 8-ranked Missouri Baptist University men's volleyball team wasted little time fretting about Tuesday's first loss of the season and bounced back with a 3-0 sweep of (RV) Campbellsville University on Friday. MBU's attack was on point against the Tigers, hitting .431% on the afternoon and winning with set scores of 25-18, 25-15, and 25-23.
The Spartans made the most of their second-to-last non-conference tilt and added another Top-20 win to their resume. With the victory, MoBap improved to 10-1 on the year and recorded its eighth sweep. Campbellsville dropped to 8-4, with their only other losses coming to teams currently ranked or receiving votes, including No. 12 Jamestown, No. 13 Cornerstone, and (RV) Mount Vernon Nazarene.
Set One was a group effort for the Spartans, as five of the six starters recorded at least two kills in the set. Freshman opposite hitter
Aleksa Mandic paced the team with four kills. He wasn't the only Spartan playing error-free on the attack, though. MBU quietly triumphed in Set One, 25-18, with a .480 attack percentage and only one error on 25 swings.
Despite a 3-0 Campbellsville run to start the set, MBU took advantage of a string of Tiger errors and ran away with Set Two, 25-15. On paper, it was lopsided. The visitors from Campbellsville, Kentucky, were riddled with mistakes and hit -.045%, while No. 8 Missouri Baptist had its best set offensively with 13 kills on 18 swings and a .556 hitting percentage.
Although MBU had the momentum coming out of the second set, CU made the Spartans play catch up in Set Three. Down by as much as four, MoBap battled back and used a clutch 6-2 run to take back the lead. Highlighting the 6-2 stretch were a pair of blocks,
Aleksa Mandic and
David Rudic kills, and a critical service run by sophomore
Alex Seyer. The two teams traded points the rest of the way, outside of back-to-back CU points, to make it a one-point differential at 23-22.
Standing out on Friday was
Aleksa Mandic with 12 kills and .474 hitting,
David Rudic with 24 assists, three blocks, and a career-best five kills,
Auston Bonte with seven kills, six digs, and three blocks,
Michael Olson with six kills and three assists,
Marko Jovanovic with a team-high nine digs and two aces to go along with five assists, and
Michael Anderson with three kills and a team-best four blocks.
No. 8 MBU now enters a four-match stretch away from the SRC, beginning with the University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy (9-1) on Monday at 7 p.m., followed by a trip to Iowa to play Graceland, No. 5 William Penn, and No. 9 Grand View on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
