ST. LOUIS – No. 11 Missouri Baptist University men's volleyball fell in three sets at second-ranked Saint Xavier University on Friday night. The Spartans lost 25-20, 25-20, 25-19, and hit .301 as a team with 36 kills on 83 attacks and 11 errors.
No. 2 Saint Xavier Recap
Michael Olson,
Veljko Culibrk, and
Kyle Radecki all had a trio of kills in the first set as the team hit .300 overall. The Cougars, however, tallied 13 kills on 25 attacks with two errors and came back from a 13-11 deficit with a 5-0 run that eventually allowed them to claim a 1-0 advantage with a 25-20 win.
The second set was the Spartans' most efficient with a .333 hitting percentage with 14 kills and four errors on 30 attacks. SXU also had their most efficient set with a .565 percentage and 16 kills to take a 2-0 advantage with another 25-20 frame victory.
Michael Anderson gave MBU a 4-3 lead early in the third set but a service error and two kills each from Matt Pennala and Caydann Cox flipped the lead and turned it into a five-point advantage. The Cougars did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game and got their final two points on MBU service errors to wrap up the sweep.
Radecki led the squad with a .556 hitting percentage, Olson had a team-high 11 kills, and
David Rudic logged 17 assists as he inches closer to 3,000 in his career.
Spartan Stat Leaders
Kills:
Michael Olson (11)
Assists:
David Rudic (17)
Hitting %:
Kyle Radecki (.556)
Aces:
Alex Seyer (1)
Digs:
Alex Seyer (5)
Blocks:
Michael Anderson (2)
Records
No. 11 Missouri Baptist: 3-2
No. 2 Saint Xavier: 6-0
Next Game
MBU stays in Illinois to take on (RV) Olivet Nazarene University on Saturday, Feb. 8. The opening serve in Bourbonnais, Ill., is set for 1 p.m.
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