Facing the undefeated and ninth-ranked Wichita State Shockers on their home floor, the Missouri State volleyball team overcame long odds to hand WSU its first loss of the year in the semifinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Friday at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita.
Missouri State was victorious by scores of 25-23, 25-17, 16-25, 22-25 and 17-15, improving to 22-12 on the season and advancing to the conference tournament final for the sixth time in the last eight years. Wichita State is now 29-1.
Playing in their ninth five-setter of the year, the Bears were in familiar territory but let WSU go on a 3-0 run after winning the first point of the final set. The Shockers extended the lead to 5-2 and kept it at two or three points until Julia Cawthra and
Bethany Fuller paired up on a block to make the score 11-10.
Two sideouts and
Sara Staubach’s 11th kill made for a 12-12 tie and a Fuller block gave the Bears a 13-12 lead. The Bears then held match point at 14-13 and gave it back to WSU at 15-14 before a 15-15 tie. A Wichita State attack error gave MSU another match point and
Calli Norman stuffed a Sarah McGee attack to give MSU the win.
Fuller had her best match as a Bear, hitting .593 (17-1-27) and adding seven blocks. She was one of five Bears to reach double figures in kills, joining Staubach (12),
Kelley Michnowicz (12), Norman (12) and
Cara Hackmann (11) in a balanced attack.
The first four sets were a tale of two halves. Missouri State hit .293 to WSU’s .188 to gain the 2-0 advantage, then slumped to .208 compared to .305 for the Shockers in sets three and four. The Bears hit .253 for the match against a WSU defense that was holding opponents to .101 for the season.
Hackmann led the Bears with 21 digs, and Cawthra notched her first career double-double with 51 assists and 11 digs to go with five blocks.
Terri Del Conte had 15 digs to reach double figures for the 23rd consecutive match.
The Bears play UNI in the championship match at 7 p.m. Saturday. The third-seeded Panthers are 25-7 overall and 13-5 in the MVC. Saturday’s winner will be the first MVC champion not seeded first or second in the 27-year history of the tournament.
