The Missouri State volleyball team (23-3, 12-1 MVC) travels to Wichita, Kan., Friday for a showdown with the 25th-ranked Wichita State Shockers (21-4, 12-1) in a match that could determine the eventual league champion. The Bears play just one match this week before returning home to play Drake and Creighton and traveling to Bradley and UNI to close the season. Missouri State hosts the State Farm MVC Tournament over Thanksgiving weekend.
Live stats will be available for the WSU match at www.missouristatebears.com. Just click "Live Stats" on the left side of the home page and select the appropriate match. Live audio of the Wichita State broadcast can be accessed at www.shockerradio.com.
THE OPPONENT No. 25 Wichita State enters Friday’s match on a 14-match winning streak to go with a 21-4 overall record and 12-1 league mark. The Shockers lead the MVC in both offensive (.269) and defensive (.113) hitting percentage, while sophomore Emily Stockman leads the league with 4.30 kills per game.
The Shockers beat the Bears by scores of 32-30, 30-22, 28-30 and 30-26 on Oct. 5 in Springfield, and suffered their only league defeat at home in four games to UNI in the first weekend of conference play.
THE SERIES Missouri State holds a 39-13 all-time series edge over WSU. The series history has been one of streaks, as Missouri State took the first 15 meetings, the Shockers won one match, and the Bears reeled off another 11 wins in a row. The Shockers won five straight from 1997-98, the Bears took the next 10, and WSU won five straight in 2004 and 2005 before Missouri State won the 2005 MVC Tournament title match and two out of three in 2006. Wichita State has the edge this season, beating the Bears 3-1 on Oct. 5.
COACH MELISSA STOKES Missouri State head coach Melissa Stokes (San Diego State, 1991) is 268-117 (.696) in her 12th season at Missouri State. A native of El Cajon, Calif., Stokes has guided Missouri State to an overall record of 197-60 (.767) and 114-24 (.826) in the Missouri Valley Conference since 2000. In 2003, the Bears were the MVC regular-season champions and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1993. MSU made a return trip to the NCAAs in 2005 after winning the MVC Tournament, and advanced to the second round for the first time in program history in 2006, defeating Arkansas before falling to No. 13 Oklahoma in the second round.
Stokes came to Missouri State from the University of Idaho, where she helped the Vandals to four straight NCAA Tournament berths. As a setter at San Diego State, Stokes played four seasons and helped the Aztecs to two NCAA appearances. She recorded her 100th career victory in the Bears’ five-game win over Manhattan College, Sept. 1, 2001 and coached the 250th victory of her Missouri State career against Florida State, Aug. 31, 2007. Stokes ranked 37th among active Division I coaches in win percentage entering 2007.
LAST WEEK The Bears moved their win streak to seven in a row with victories at Evansville and Southern Illinois. On Friday, MSU limited Evansville to a .047 attack percentage in a sweep and held UE to 37 digs in three games, while Sara Staubach led all players with 12 kills.
On Saturday, the Bears trailed 1-0 at Southern Illinois before winning the final three games. Jamie Adams matched her career-high with 20 kills and hit .400, while Staubach added another 18. Five Bears logged 10 or more digs and the defense stuffed 12 SIU attacks to hold the Salukis to .145 hitting.
QUICK HITS
Both the Bears and Shockers are 16-1 in their last 17 matches.
Missouri State owns a road victory over No. 25 already this season, beating Middle Tennessee on Sept. 9.
The road team has won the last three games in the MSU/WSU series. The teams have met in the league tournament the last two seasons as well, with the lower-seeded team winning both times, meaning the "underdog" has won the last five in the series.
Missouri State has not lost back-to-back matches since Sept. 2-3 of the 2005 season, meaning the Bears have won their last 18 matches immediately following a loss.
The Bears are 5-2 in 2007 against teams that have received votes for at least one week in the AVCA Top 25 poll.
Melissa Stokes became the third coach in league history to earn 150 MVC wins with a victory at Creighton Oct. 13. She is currently 154-57 (.730) in league matches. She needs three more MVC wins to tie former Illinois State coach Julie Morgan for second all-time.
Missouri State has held all but one opponent this season to a .225 or lower hitting percentage.
Stokes earned her 250th career victory when the Bears defeated Florida State on Aug. 31.
Missouri State received 38 votes in this week’s AVCA Top 25 poll, the 29th-highest total.
Missouri State ranks among the nation’s top 55 in the following categories through Oct. 28. There are 325 Division teams in the rankings:
12th in winning percentage (.885)
20th in digs per game (19.00)
30th in blocks per game (2.95)
32nd in kills per game (16.20)
46th in assists per game (14.68)
51st in hitting percentage (.243)
Katelyn Panzau ranks 72nd in the NCAA with 12.02 assists per game, and Sara Thomas is 99th with a 1.23 blocking average.
Sara Thomas became the 17th player in MSU history to reach the 1,000-dig mark Oct. 19 against Illinois State and now ranks 14th with 1,034.
Thomas has one of nine kill-block-dig triple-doubles in the country this season, doing so Oct. 5 against Wichita State. She is the only player in school history with a triple-double of that variety and one of kills, assists and digs.
Thomas is the only player in the MVC averaging at least three kills (3.21), three digs (3.45) and one block (1.23) per game.
Sara Thomas, Jamie Adams and Sara Staubach have all posted matches with 20 or more kills this season.
Those three are all averaging over three kills per game in 2007, something that hasn’t been done at Missouri State since 1993.
With 23 kills at Creighton Oct. 13, sophomore Sara Staubach became the first Bear since Amanda Omar in 1999 to get 20 or more kills in a three-game match.
The Bears are 8-2 this year in matches lasting longer than three games and 3-0 in five-gamers. MSU has won its last four five-game matches.
Head coach Melissa Stokes is climbing up the all-time MVC coaching lists in a number of categories. Listed below is the 12th-year coach’s ranking in those categories. Lists are compiled based on statistics at Valley schools only:
Sixth in total victories with 268
Fourth in win percentage overall (.696) and second among active MVC coaches
Sixth in win percentage in MVC matches only (.730)
Third in MVC victories (154)
Missouri State is 12-0 this season when Sara Staubach has 12 or more kills.
Shayla Patrick leads all MVC freshmen with 1.13 blocks per game and a .251 hitting percentage.
MSU is 20-0 this year and 44-1 the last two seasons when winning game two.
The MSU defense has been very difficult to ace this season, surrendering an average of 0.92 aces per game to opponents to lead the league.
Katelyn Panzau is fifth in school history with 2,512 assists and now holds the record for assists by a two-year player.
Missouri State’s win over No. 25 Middle Tennessee on Sept. 9 was the first over a ranked team since 2003.
Jamie Adams has reached at least 10 kills in 28 of her last 33 matches.
Missouri State has hit over .200 in 21 of 26 matches this season and at least .169 in all but two.
Sara Thomas has recorded at least one kill, dig, assist and block in all but one match this season. Katelyn Panzau has achieved that feat in 58 of her 60 career matches.
By winning MVC Player of the Week honors Sept. 10, Thomas became the first MSU player to win the award multiple times in the same season since Linette White in 2003.
Thomas has recorded at least six kills in each match, hitting .500 or better four times, .400 or better 11 times, .300 or better 15 times, and .200 or better 18 times.
HOMECOMING Missouri State has been dominant at home since 2000, compiling a home record of 100-14 for an .877 winning percentage at Hammons Student Center. The Bears have completed seven consecutive years with three or fewer losses in a home season and are 12-1 in 2007.
1,000th WIN Missouri State became the second volleyball program in NCAA history to reach 1,000 victories with a sweep on Indiana State on Nov. 17, 2006. Now with 1,026 all-time victories, the Bears trail only UCLA (1,053) on the all-time wins list.
NATIONAL PRAISE Missouri State is the reigning College Volleyball Update Overall Defensive Team of the Year in 2006. The Bears ranked second nationally last season by holding opponents to a .119 attack efficiency and 27th with 3.11 blocks per game.
TOUGH COMPETITION The Bears have seven matches lined up this season against teams that began the year receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll, and nine versus teams making at least one appearance so far.
MSU plays Illinois State, Northern Iowa and Wichita State two times each, and Middle Tennessee, Michigan State and Sacramento State also appear on the schedule.
The Bears are 5-2 against that competition this season.
PANZAU CHASING A RECORD Senior setter Katelyn Panzau is in just her second season on the floor for the Bears, but is in line to finish as one of the top setters in school history. She recorded 1,502 assists in 2006, and a repeat of that will put her in third place on MSU’s all-time list. She now occupies fifth place on the career list with 2,512.
Just a pair of two-year players appear in the career top 10 in addition to Panzau, with Jessica Brester (2,027) and Lani Kim (1,838) occupying the ninth and 10th spots, respectively.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK Sara Thomas and Shayla Patrick brought home MVC awards in the first week of the season. Thomas was the league’s player of the week after averaging 3.79 kills, 4.07 digs, 1.07 blocks and hitting .357 on the way to becoming the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational MVP.
Patrick was the freshman of the week after leading MSU in hitting efficiency (.377) and blocking (1.29/game). She was named to the all-tournament team in her first collegiate action.
Thomas earned the award a second time on Sept. 10 after averaging 4.23 kills, 2.92 digs, 1.54 blocks and 1.46 assists per game in MSU’s 4-0 trip through Tennessee. She hit over .400 in three matches and .368 for the weekend, including a career-high 20 kills and a .405 attack efficiency in MSU’s 3-1 win at 25th-ranked Middle Tennessee.
Thomas added another award to her resume Oct. 8 by earning MVC Defensive Player of the Week honors. She averaged 4.57 digs and 2.71 blocks against WSU and SDSU, recording a triple-double against the Shockers.
Patrick brought home her second freshman honor Oct. 15 after leading the Bears with a .419 hitting figure and 1.29 blocks per game in wins at Drake and Creighton.
Thomas earned a fourth weekly honor Oct. 29 by winning Defensive Player of the Week a second time. She averaged 3.0 digs and 1.86 blocks in road victories against Evansville and Southern Illinois.
MVC TOURNAMENT The State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament returns to Springfield for the first time since 2003 on Thanksgiving weekend. The top six teams in the regular season standings will come to Hammons Student Center November 23 and 24 to vie for the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
PRESEASON POLL Coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2005 and 2006, the Bears are picked to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2007 by the league’s coaches. UNI is the preseason choice to repeat as league champions, while Wichita State was picked second and Creighton a close third.
VOLLEYBALL LUNCHEONS Three dates remain for Missouri State volleyball luncheons this fall. Luncheons will be on alternate Wednesdays at Ebbets Field, 1027 East Walnut, and feature Bears’ head coach Melissa Stokes. Luncheons begin at noon and remaining dates are Oct. 24, Nov. 7 and Nov. 21.
