ST. LOUIS – Fourth-ranked Missouri Baptist University men's volleyball earned a three-set win in downtown St. Louis on Tuesday night at the University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy
Recap
The Spartans downed the Eutectics 25-23, 25-23, 25-22, to improve to 19-4 overall in 2025 and 12-2 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference.
Veljko Culibrk led the attack with team-highs in kills (19) and hitting percentage (.394) as the team hit .303 collectively with 49 kills on 109 attacks and 16 errors. Of the 49 team kills, senior setter
David Rudic had assists on 41 of them.
On defense,
Alex Seyer led the way with 11 digs and
Michael Olson had 4.0 blocks.
MBU trailed 19-20 in the first set but rallied behind two kills from
Marko Jovanovic and two kills from Culibrk to jump out to a 24-21 advantage on a 6-1 run. An attack error by UHSP ended the first set 25-23.
The Spartans fell behind again in the second set 12-16 but tied it up on two kills and a pair of team blocks, both assisted by
Michael Olson and
Michael Anderson. Tied at 23 later in the set, Rudic found Olson for kills on back-to-back plays to conclude another 25-23 win.
Going for the sweep, MBU fell into another hole early in the set and were dug out by kills from
AJ Tufuga, Culibrk, Jovanovic, a service ace from
Reagan Froemsdorf, and a block from Anderson. In total, there were 12 lead changes in the third frame, but the Spartans completed the three-set victory when Culibrk sent down two kills at 22-22 and Olson served up an ace.
Spartan Stat Leaders
Kills:
Veljko Culibrk (19)
Assists:
David Rudic (41)
Hitting %:
Veljko Culibrk (.394)
Aces:
Michael Olson (2)
Digs:
Alex Seyer (11)
Blocks:
Michael Olson (4.0)
Records
No. 4 Missouri Baptist: 19-4, 12-2 Heart
UHSP: 9-11, 5-8 Heart
Next Game
The Spartans host No. 15 William Penn University on Friday, March 21, at 7 p.m. They follow up on Saturday with a home game against No. 6 Grand View University at 1 p.m.
Follow Us:
X/Twitter: @mbuvolleyball
Instagram: @mbuvolleyball
