The Missouri State volleyball team improved on its best start since the 2000 season Friday evening with a 3-1 (30-28, 30-24, 35-37, 30-21) Missouri Valley Conference victory over Southern Illinois at Hammons Student Center in Springfield.

For the Bears, the victory extended their winning streak to 10 matches in a row and improved their record to 15-2 overall and 5-0 in league play. SIU fell to 10-5 and 2-2 in the Valley.

After holding off late SIU rallies in the first two games, the Bears had a pair of match-point opportunities in the third game before the Salukis grabbed a 31-30 lead for their own game-point chance. The teams battled back-and-forth, with the Bears owning four game point chances and the Salukis three before SIU’s Chandra Roberson finished it off with one of her eight blocks to end the second-longest game in MSU history at 37-35. SIU owned a 5-0 blocking advantage in game three and ended the match with a 14-5.5 margin in that category.

There would be no late rally for the Salukis in game four. Missouri State took the lead for good at 12-11 and pulled away to the 30-21 win on the strength of .300 hitting. Jamie Adams tallied seven of her match-high 16 kills in the final game, doing so on only 12 swings.

The Bears went on a pair of scoring runs in the opening game of the contest, outscoring the visitors 7-0 early on and 4-0 near the end to lead 27-19. The Salukis then took advantage of four MSU attack errors and served a pair of aces as part of a 9-1 run to tie the score at 28-apiece. Shayla Patrick came up with a kill to set MSU up for match point and then teamed with Adams to block Kristie Berwanger for the 30-28 win.

Missouri State owned a 23-13 lead late in the second game when the Salukis went on a 10-5 run to cut the lead to 28-23. The Bears quickly ended any hopes of a similar comeback as game one, as Sara Staubach provided one of her five kills in the game and SIU’s Kelsie Laughlin committed one of SIU’s 15 service errors to end the game.

The Bears hit .217 in the match after a sluggish game one performance of .083 hitting, while the Salukis hit at a .158 clip. Staubach totaled 15 kills for her fourth double-figure match in a row, and Patrick tied her career-high with 12 kills on .321 hitting.

Senior Katelyn Panzau dished out 53 assists to go with seven kills and nine digs, and Nikki Vandepopulier led the Bears with 17 digs.

Missouri State hosts Evansville (8-7, 1-3) Saturday night at 7 p.m.