The Missouri State volleyball team closed out the regular season with a 20-12 overall record and an 11-7 mark in Missouri Valley Conference action to finish fourth in the league standings. The Bears now move into the postseason, where they take a fourth seed into the State Farm MVC Tournament starting Thursday at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan. Missouri State faces No. 5 Illinois State at 8:00 p.m. Thursday and the winner advances to play No. 1 Wichita State at 7:00 p.m. Friday. MSU won both matches with Illinois State this year, combining to win six games to two, but was swept by Wichita State. The other half of the bracket includes No. 2 Creighton, No. 3 UNI and No. 6 Evansville.
Missouri State has played in five of the last seven MVC Championship matches and won the title in 2005. MSU advanced to the finals as a three seed in 2004 and 2006, although the championship has never been won by a team not seeded first or second in the 26 years the MVC has sponsored volleyball.
The Valley Tournament home page can be accessed by visiting www.mvc.org. Live stats will be available at www.missouristatebears.com and fans can listen to the Bears on Thursday and Friday on KBFL 99.9 FM in Springfield, while the championship match will be televised live Saturday on the stations listed on the left side of this page.
THE OPPONENT Illinois State is 16-14 overall and 9-9 in The Valley. The Redbirds boast two of the top four attackers in the league in Peggy Riessen and Mallory Leggett, who average 3.65 and 3.42 kills per set, respectively. ISU averages 13.74 kills on .190 hitting, 17.92 digs and 1.90 blocks per set as a team.
THE SERIES Missouri State has squared off with Illinois State more than any other school, and owns a 39-38 lead in 77 all-time meetings. Missouri State has been in control of the series lately, however, winning 15 of the last 18 overall.
COACH MELISSA STOKES Missouri State head coach Melissa Stokes (San Diego State, 1991) is 290-134 (.684) in her 13th season at Missouri State. A native of El Cajon, Calif., Stokes has guided Missouri State to an overall record of 216-76 (.740) and 127-34 (.789) 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, and made it three straight trips to the postseason in 2007.
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-set 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 2008.
LIVE STATS Live stats for most Missouri State volleyball matches will be available at www.missouristatebears.com. Go to the “Fan Central” link on the left side of the page and select “Live Stats.”
AUDIO AND VIDEO COVERAGE KBFL 99.9 FM will carry Thursday’s match with Illinois State and Friday’s match with WSU should the Bears advance.
Bears Live will also offer a video stream of the first two days at www.missouristatebears.com.
LAST WEEK Missouri State was swept at home in its only match against 11th-ranked Wichita State. The Shockers completed their unbeaten regular season as the Bears managed only 30 kills in the match. Bethany Fuller led the Bears with eight kills on .615 hitting.
CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY Missouri State has appeared in five of the last seven MVC Tournament finals. MSU is 23-19 in the tournament with titles coming in 1993 and 2005.
QUICK HITS
Missouri State ranks 38th in the nation in blocks per set (2.48) and 43rd in digs (16.11), while Terri Del Conte is the team’s only individual ranking among the nation’s top 100, coming in at 77th with 4.42 digs per set.
Missouri State has now finished in the top four of the MVC standings 10 years in a row. Only UNI can match that streak among league schools.
Head coach Melissa Stokes is climbing up the all-time MVC coaching lists in a number of categories. Listed below is the 13th-year coach’s ranking in those categories. Lists are compiled based on statistics at Valley schools only:
Fourth in total victories with 290
Fifth in win percentage overall (.684) and second among active MVC coaches
Sixth in win percentage in MVC matches only (.714)
Third in MVC victories (167)
Stokes is now five victories away from tying SIU’s Debbie Hunter (1975-88) for third all-time in wins at MVC schools.
Missouri State has played beyond three sets in 21 of 32 matches this season, and has a record of 8-3 in the three-setters.
In losing at UNI and Bradley on Nov. 14-15, Missouri State lost both matches of an MVC weekend for the first time since a trip to those same two schools on November 3-4, 2000.
The Bears have six players with at least three double-figure kill matches and five who have 10-plus kills on at least eight occasions.
Sara Staubach has had three or fewer attack errors in 17 of MSU’s 32 matches, has five matches with no attack errors and has topped the .300 mark in hitting efficiency on 12 occasions.
Kelley Michnowicz has made only 15 errors in her last 11 matches, accumulating 96 kills on 238 swings in the process to hit .340.
Terri Del Conte went 165 consecutive serve reception chances without an error from Sept. 26 to Oct. 17. As a comparison, the league as a whole averages one error approximately every 17 chances for the season.
Del Conte has led Missouri State in digs in all but six matches this season and has reached double figures in 21 in row.
Del Conte’s 552 digs this season rank third all-time for a season at MSU.
Del Conte is second on the career digs per set list, just .003 digs per set behind current record holder Adeana McAfee.
After recording no double-doubles in her first 71 career matches, Addie Foley did it on back-to-back nights with 10 kills and 11 digs versus SIUE (Oct.14) and 18 kills and 10 digs against Bradley (Oct. 17).
By losing to Evansville on Oct. 11, the Bears snapped a streak of 42 consecutive match victories against programs from the state of Indiana.
Cara Hackmann (18), Calli Norman (18) and Sara Staubach (17) all had at least 17 kills at Drake on Sept. 27, the first time MSU has had three players with at least 17 kills since Linette White (22), Erin Murphy (19) and Katie Werges (18) did it against Illinois State on Oct. 25, 2003.
MSU is 58-4 the last three seasons when winning set two.
The Bears went on a six-match winning streak Sept. 6-13, their 13th different streak of six or more consecutive wins since the beginning of the 1999 season.
Nikki Vandepopulier now ranks 10th on MSU’s career digs and has 1,137 digs as a Bear.
The Bears used six freshmen against Arkansas-Pine Bluff Sept. 13.
Cara Hackmann broke a long-standing school record by hitting .882 (15-0-17) against IPFW on Sept. 12, breaking Mindy Struckhoff’s 23-year-old mark of .867 that was set nearly three years before Hackmann was born and when Coach Stokes was a senior in high school.
The Bears put up the second best attack percentage in school history as a team in the IPFW match as well, hitting .456 (48-7-90).
THAT’S A LOT OF VOLLEYBALL Missouri State has made a habit of playing long matches this season. Here are some numbers that show just how much volleyball the Bears are playing.
21 matches that have lasted more than three sets, tied with 1989 team for most ever
Eight five-set matches (the most since 1998)
125 sets tops MSU’s 2007 total of 115. MSU played two more weekends last year.
14 of 18 MVC matches lasted more than three sets
Bears are guaranteed at least 128 sets this season, the most since 1992 (131)
20 WINS AGAIN Missouri State has reached 20 wins for the 10th consecutive season. Entering 2008, only nine schools in the country had longer active streaks.
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. The Bears trail only UCLA (1,078) and Nebraska (1,055) on the all-time wins list.
HOMECOMING Missouri State has been dominant at home since 2000, compiling a home record of 112-20 for an .848 winning percentage at Hammons Student Center. The Bears have completed nine consecutive years with four or fewer losses in a home season and went 11-4 in 2008.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK Cara Hackmann was MSU’s first MVC Player of the Week in 2008, earning the award Sept. 15. She averaged 3.82 kills on .500 hitting, 3.18 digs and 1.36 blocks per set over four matches and set the school record for hitting percentage in a match at .882 (15-0-17) against IPFW on Sept. 12.
The Bears added two more awards on Oct. 6. Addie Foley was honored as POW after averaging 3.50 kills on .304 hitting, 1.12 digs and 0.62 blocks in wins against Indiana State and Illinois State.
Terri Del Conte earned Defensive Player of the Week recognition the same week. The senior averaged 5.75 digs per set, including a career-high 27 versus the Sycamores, while posting a perfect service reception percentage in 47 tries.
Two more Bears were honored Oct. 20. Freshman Calli Norman won Player of the Week honors after hitting .441 with 2.91 kills and 1.18 blocks per set in three wins.
Fellow rookie Kelley Michnowicz was the league’s Freshman of the Week. She hit .417 (27-2-60) and averaged 2.45 kills, 1.00 digs and 0.73 blocks per set for the week.
Michnowicz repeated that honor Oct. 27 after averaging 2.88 kills on .417 hitting and 1.00 digs for the Bears against Drake and Creighton.
Norman added to her hardware collection Nov. 10 with a Freshman of the Week award. She averaged 3.15 kills and 1.31 blocks and hit .286 for the week.
RULE CHANGES FOR 2008 A few rule changes will be in effect this season, most notably that the term “game” will now be changed to “set”, and that sets will be played to 25 points rather than 30. Additionally, with the new shorter sets, the maximum number of substitutions allowed will now be 12 per set.
