ST. LOUIS – After a rocky start to conference play, the Missouri Baptist University men's volleyball program is back on solid footing following Friday and Saturday's sweeps of No. 10 Mount Mercy (Iowa) and Clarke (Iowa). This comes just days after the Mustangs leapfrogged MBU in the conference and national polls, and the Spartans were bounced from the Top 15 to receiving votes status.
 
Missouri Baptist kicked off its Spring Break in style with a 25-21, 25-20, 27-25 straight-set victory over Mount Mercy and wrapped up the weekend with a quick sweep of Clarke – 25-10, 25-19, 25-19. The back wins boosted the Spartans to 15-4 and 4-4 in the conference, with just one match remaining against No. 12 Missouri Valley before the back half of the Heart schedule begins.

The Spartans return to the court on Tuesday when they travel to No. 12 MoVal, which is coming off an upset sweep on Saturday over No. 3 Park (Mo.).
 
(RV) Missouri Baptist def. (10) Mount Mercy University, 3-0 [25-21, 25-20, 27-25]
Despite scoring the first two points of the match, the Spartans fell behind shortly after and trailed for much of the opening set. Mount Mercy broke open the game and led by as much as six before MBU chipped away at the deficit. Back-to-back MMU errors gave MoBap its first lead since 2-1 at the 21-20 mark. The Spartans scored in seven of the last eight rallies, including an Auston Bonte kill and service ace, Michael Anderson solo block, and Michael Olson to seal the deal.
 
Sets Two and Three were strikingly similar in that Mount Mercy had the hot hand to start, forcing the Spartans to play catch up again. In Set Two, the Spartans pulled even at 13-all and took their first lead at 15-14. The energy remained on MBU's side with another strong finish powered by a 9-3 run to end the set.
 
The Spartans dramatically won Set Three. Trailing by five early, it took most of the set to bounce back from the deficit. It wasn't until the 22-21 mark that MBU took its first lead of the third frame. The 10^th-ranked Mustangs scored three straight points to reach set point. Head coach Tom Young took a perfectly-timed timeout to halt MMU's momentum, resulting in a Michael Olson kill and Aleksa Mandic ace to avoid both set points. Although the Spartans failed to close on their first match point opportunity, Mount Mercy gifted them a service error and attack error to solidify the sweep.
 
MBU's attack ran through the pins on Friday as Aleksa Mandic (14), Michael Olson (11), and Auston Bonte (9) accounted for 34 of the team's 39 kills. The Spartans edged the Mustangs 39-38 in kills, .306-.198 in hitting %, 5-4 in service aces, and 29-27 in digs. Four Spartans finished with six digs apiece, including Mandic, Olson, setter David Rudic, and starting libero Jake Richardson.
 
(RV) Missouri Baptist def. Clarke, 3-0 [25-10, 25-19, 25-19]
Saturday's opening set was never in doubt. MBU shut down the Pride offense and used an 8-1 and 9-1 run to coast to a 25-10 Set One victory. Outside hitter Auston Bonte paced the Spartans with five kills and a .455 hitting clip, while the rest of the team hit just .105 in the opening set. Meanwhile, on the other side of the net, Clarke had 13 errors compared to just four kills for -.290%.
 
CU kept the second set closer in the early going. However, (RV) Missouri Baptist began to pull away with a crucial 8-2 run. Within the 8-2 run, MBU registered four team blocks from Michael Anderson, Aleksa Mandic, Michael Olson, and Veljko Culibrk. The Spartans thwarted Clarke's attempt at a comeback from a seven-point margin. MBU won Set Two, 25-19.
 
MoBap turned it up a notch in Set Three by nearly doubling its kill total from the previous sets. Sam Goedde and Auston Bonte led the way in Set Three with seven and six kills, respectively. MBU hit a match-best .290 in the third frame while holding the Pride to just five kills and a .000 attack percentage. The Spartans' strong defensive performance contributed to Clarke's -.088% for the match.
 
Leaders for the match included Auston Bonte in kills (10) and hitting percentage (.474), David Rudic in assists (26), Michael Olson in aces (3), Michael Anderson in blocks (6), and Jake Richardson in digs (7).