ROLLA, Mo. - The Missouri S&T men's volleyball team will return to Gibson Arena to host the Spartans of Missouri Baptist Thursday evening at 6 p.m., before heading back to the road to visit Quincy for a 7 p.m. match on Friday evening. 
 
The Miners (1-5) enter Thursday's matchup coming a tough 3-0 loss to Central State, where S&T was led in kills by Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) with 13 and Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) added 11.  Those two, along with Josh Duett (Grain Valley, Mo./Grain Valley), combined for 30 of S&T's 38 total kills in the match. Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District) led S&T with 17 assists and Jordan Orr (Eureka, Mo./Eureka) added 11, while Andres Hernandez (Bedford, Texas/Trinity) led the Miners with a team-high seven digs.
 
After six matches, S&T is led in kills by Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) with 47 as he is averaging a team-high 3.67 points and 2.61 kills per set; he also leads the Miners with 16 service aces. Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) trails Meyer by three in the kills category with 44 as he is averaging 2.89 points and 2.44 kills per set while on the defensive side, he ranks second on the team with nine total blocks.
 
Josh Duett (Grain Valley, Mo./Grain Valley) has recorded at least one kill in each match this season as he has tallied 21 total kills and averaging 2.21 points per set. Caleb Rohlwing (Barrington, Ill./Barrington), meanwhile, leads S&T with 15 total blocks (4 solo, 11 assisted). On offense, Rohlwing has contributed 20 kills while averaging two points per set.    
 
As a team, the Miners are averaging 9.1 kills and 8.6 assists per set, while making a total of 27.5 blocks.  
 
ABOUT MISSOURI BAPTIST:
The Spartans will be playing their first match of the season on Thursday after taking part in a scrimmage match against McKendree last Friday night in Lebanon in preparation for its opening contest. Last season, Missouri Baptist finished with a 21-8 overall record and a Heart of America Athletic Conference record of 13-5, where they went the distance with top-seeded Grand View in the semifinals in a match that ended their season. 
 
This season, the Spartans return top outside hitters in Auston Bonte and Miljan Kastratovic. Bonte led MBU with 323 kills while averaging 3.47 kills and 4.18 points per set a season ago. Kastratovic, a graduate student, led MBU with an average of 4.47 points and 3.69 kills per set and also added 288 kills which ranked second-best on the squad last season. 
 
ABOUT QUINCY:
The Hawks (1-3) will play Maryville Wednesday evening in Quincy before hosting the Miners Friday evening at Pepsi Arena. 
 
Quincy opened its 2023 season with a 3-2 victory over Limestone University on Jan. 19. Since that decision, the Hawks have only won one set in the past three matches, which came against King in their next match in a 3-1 setback. Lincoln Memorial and Charleston defeated Quincy on Friday.
 
This season, prior to the Maryville matchup, the Hawks are led offensively by Raje Alleyne with 64 kills as he is averaging 4.87 points and 4.27 kills per set and also has a team-high five service aces. On the defensive side, Roman Deryckere leads Quincy with 17 total blocks with an average of 1.13 blocks per set.