Pride drop road matchup to No. 4 Missouri Baptist

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Closing out a two-match road trip to the St. Louis area, the Clarke University men's volleyball team fell in a 3-0 final to NAIA No. 4 Missouri Baptist University on Saturday afternoon.

The Spartans had a consistently strong offensive performance with 14 kills in the first and second sets for 25-21 and 25-20 set wins before they went nearly mistake free on the attack in the third set to a 25-16 where they finished with 13 kills and only one error on 20 attempts for a .600 hitting percentage where MBU finished with a .357 hitting percentage over the entire match.

Both teams had a member of the attack finish with a nearly perfect match with MBU's Veljko Culibrk going 7-for-8 for a .875 hitting percentage and the Pride's Paulo Simon had five kills on six attempts for an .833 hitting percentage.

Clarke had four other members of the team at five or more kills with Simon led by nine kills from Justin Hernandez with Tanner May having a strong match at eight kills and only two errors on 13 attempts for a .462 hitting percentage then Anthony Ramirez and Eduardo Hernandez both having five-kill days.

Missouri Baptist was led on the attack by Marko Jovanovic's 10 kills as he was two digs away from a double-double while Luka Stepanovic had nine kills and Michael Olson added seven kills to match Culibrk's total.

Outside of the offensive efficiency advantage in the match, the Spartans also had a strong day on the block with seven total blocks compared to just one for CU as setter David Rudic had five block assists to go with his match-high 32 assists and Culibrk had four block assists of his own to add to his strong day in the middle.

Clarke will stay on the road through the next week and a half starting with their first Heart rematch of the 2025 season when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa for another matchup against a ranked foe when they face No. 6 Grand View University on Tuesday, Mar. 11.