ST. LOUIS - At home the Spartans welcomed Ottawa for their first conference game of the spring and gained an early lead and never looked back as they went on to win 15-8.

The Braves were able to get on the scoreboard first, but it did not take long for the Spartans to answer as they tallied five goals in the first quarter and held Ottawa to just the one.

KJ Bonenberger scored two of MBU's first quarter goals and Lydia Cornett, Mackaylee Miller, and Delaney Pechnik got the others.

It was a quiet second quarter at Spartan Field as Ottawa scored once and Caroline Karr found the back of the net for the Spartans.

MoBap held a 6-2 lead at the halfway point, and Amelia Shaw made three saves to help keep the four goal lead.

After the break Ottawa trimmed MBU's lead to three, but Skyler Morrissey was able to bring it back to four.

The third quarter featured back and forth play as Ottawa got two more goals and the Spartans' Morrissey and Kiersten Lang scored a pair of goals to make it 9-5.

The Braves answered Lang's goal pretty quickly, but five minutes later Miller made it 10-6.

Ottawa was able to score two more goals in the third frame and Miller got another goal to maintain a three goal lead heading into the final 15 minutes of action.

The Spartans took control of the game in the fourth quarter as Miller and Cornett tacked on two more goals in the first five minutes, and Karr and Lang got two more before the final buzzer.

Shaw and the Spartans' defense were able to hold the Braves scoreless in the fourth quarter as they forced four turnovers and Shaw made four saves.

The Spartans' dominating fourth quarter clinched them a 15-8 win over Ottawa in the KCAC season opener.

Missouri Baptist put 21 of their 23 shots on goal making it a tough day for the Ottawa defense, and they also won the ground ball battle 15-6.

Miller was the Spartans' leading scorer as she tallied four goals and Lang, Karr, Morrissey, Bonenberger, and Cornett all had two goals each.

Shaw made nine saves throughout the day and helped MoBap go 9-10 on clear attempts in the contest.

The Spartans will go back on the road to take on William Penn on Wednesday at 4:00 pm.