Fresh off Saturday’s State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title to earn a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid, the Missouri State volleyball team learned Sunday night that it will begin NCAA play with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (26-7) of Conference USA at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 5, in Lincoln, Neb.

    The other half of the four-team regional pits the No. 4 overall seed and host Nebraska (27-2) against Liberty (25-8). The winners will play on Dec. 6 at 5 p.m., and the champion of the four-team sub-regional advances to Seattle, Wash., for the third and fourth rounds Dec. 12 and 13.

    The 23-12 Bears finished fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference at 11-7 but defeated Illinois State, No. 9 Wichita State and UNI at the conference tournament to secure the MVC’s automatic bid. WSU was undefeated heading into that semifinal matchup with the Bears.

    MSU is 1-7 all-time in the tournament, with appearances in 1982, 1990, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Missouri State earned the program’s first ever NCAA win in 2006 by defeating Arkansas 3-1 in the first round.

    UAB is 26-7 overall and finished second in C-USA with a 13-3 league mark. The Blazers received the 30th highest vote total in the Nov. 24 Bison/AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll and put together a 16-match winning streak earlier this season. UAB is led this season by Ivana Bozic, who ranks third in school history in kills and averages 3.31 kills per set this year.

    Ticket information will be announced Monday. Other MVC teams earning bids include Wichita State, who will play Rice in Austin, Texas, and UNI, who will play Iowa State in Minneapolis.