The Missouri State volleyball team (12-4, 5-0 Missouri Valley Conference) hosts a pair of teams tied for third in the MVC standings at Hammons Student Center this weekend, taking on Southern Illinois (13-2, 3-2) at 7 p.m. Friday and Evansville (10-7, 3-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Bears are off to their second 5-0 MVC start in the last three seasons and have not lost a home match to either SIU or Evansville since 1998.
THE OPPONENTS — Southern Illinois is 13-2 overall, 3-2 in the MVC and was the league’s last unbeaten team with an 11-0 start. The Salukis rank second in the MVC with a .254 team hitting percentage. Jennifer Berwanger averages 3.59 kills and 3.55 digs per set, and senior Chandra Roberson ranks among the Valley’s best with a 1.16 blocking average.
Evansville is 10-7 overall and 3-2 in league play. The Aces are coming off a pair of five-set wins against Illinois State and Indiana State, and boast one of the top offenses in the conference.
Setter Ellen Sawin leads the league with 10.86 assists per set, and the Aces average 13.15 kills as a team with three players posting between 2.74 and 3.02 kills per set.
THE SERIES — MSU leads Southern Illinois 40-14 in the all-time series and has won the last nine matches. Both contests last season went five sets.
Missouri State has suffered just two losses in 31 all-time meetings with Evansville. The Bears had won 18 straight against the Aces until a five-set loss at UE last season.
AUDIO AND VIDEO COVERAGE
Coverage of this week’s matches will be as follows:
• Video stream: Bears Live Friday and Saturday, free of charge
• Radio: The Growl (thegrowl.missouristate.edu)
• TV: None
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.”
COACH MELISSA STOKES — Missouri State head coach Melissa Stokes (San Diego State, 1991) is 305-139 (.687) in her 14th season at Missouri State. A native of El Cajon, Calif., Stokes has guided Missouri State to an overall record of 228-81 (.738) and 133-34 (.796) 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. The Bears made it four straight trips to the postseason with NCAA bids in 2007 and 2008.
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 coached the 300th victory of her Missouri State career against Delaware, Sept. 11, 2009. Stokes ranked 36th among active Division I coaches in winning percentage entering 2009.
LAST WEEK — The Bears extended their winning streak to five matches with road sweeps of Drake and Creighton. Friday at Drake, Bethany Fuller had 12 kills, eight blocks and hit .429 in the 25-22, 25-13, 25-22 sweep.
Saturday, Kelley Michnowicz set a career high with 16 kills in the 25-22, 25-20, 25-19 win over Creighton, hitting .536 with five blocks. Fuller added another eight stuffs and Cara Hackmann had 22 digs for the second match in a row.
DIG PINK
Missouri State will once again be participating in the nation-wide Dig Pink breast cancer awareness event on Saturday. Donations can be made at the door to Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks.
In 2008, 330 college teams and 285 high school and middle school teams participated during the month of October, raising $390,000 for breast cancer awareness, research and treatment.
QUICK HITS
• Missouri State received 13 votes in this week’s AVCA Top 25 Poll, the 38th highest total.
• Head coach Melissa Stokes is climbing up the all-time MVC coaching lists in a number of categories. Listed below is the 14th-year coach’s ranking in those categories. Lists are compiled based on statistics at Valley schools only:
• Third in total victories with 305
• Fifth in win percentage overall (.687) and third among active MVC coaches
• Sixth in win percentage in MVC matches only (.720)
• Second in MVC victories (172)
• Stokes picked up her 300th career victory with MSU’s 3-1 win over Delaware on Sept. 11. She recently passed SIU’s Debbie Hunter (1975-88) for third all-time in wins at MVC schools.
• Missouri State started 2-0 in the MVC for the seventh time in the last 10 seasons. Each of the previous four times the Bears have started 2-0, MSU has gone on to play in the NCAA Tournament.
• MSU’s 5-0 MVC start is the fifth best since the team joined the league prior to the 1992 season. The Bears began the league schedule 15-0 in 2003, 10-0 in 1992, 8-0 in 2002 and 6-0 in 2007.
• With its win over No. 20 Wichita State Sept. 25, Missouri State has now defeated a ranked opponent in each of the last three seasons. The Bears beat the No. 9 Shockers in 2008, and topped 25th-ranked Middle Tennessee in 2007.
• Calli Norman has hit at least .267 in all but one match this year, topping .300 eleven times, .400 eight times, .500 three times and .600 once.
• Norman has turned 50.5 percent of her attacks into kills this season and is hitting .384, comparing favorably with Linette White’s 2003 campaign when she hit .393 with a 52.9 percent kill rate, both school records.
• Sara Staubach recently moved into the Missouri State career top 20 in kills and now stands 17th. She is also 71 kills shy of becoming the 16th player in school history with 1,000.
• Cara Hackmann became the 19th player in school history with 1,000 career digs Sept. 18 against Illinois State and now sits in 15th-place on that list with 1,110.
• Missouri State has finished in the top four of the MVC standings 10 years in a row. Only UNI can match that streak among league schools.
• MSU is 73-6 the last four seasons when winning set two.
• Missouri State has won at least 20 matches in 10 consecutive seasons, a streak that is currently longer than all but seven others nationally.
• Four Bears - Bethany Fuller, Kelley Michnowicz, Calli Norman and Shayla Patrick - have finished in the MVC’s top 10 in blocking at least one season of their career.
• MSU has recorded more blocks than the opposition 10 times in 16 matches and is 9-1 when tallying more stuffs.
• Missouri State has had 21 or fewer attack errors in 14 of its 16 matches, and less than 30 in all 14.
• Missouri State’s crowd of 2,387 for the Sept. 25 Wichita State match checked in as the sixth largest in school history.
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 (1,093) and Nebraska (1,071) on the all-time wins list.
HACK-OF-ALL-TRADES — Junior Cara Hackmann has truly been a do-it-all player in her Missouri State career. She holds the school record for hitting percentage in a match, hitting .882 (15-0-17) last season while playing as a middle hitter. Hackmann moved to the outside for the first time in her career at the 2008 MVC Tournament and earned MVP honors at the event. Now in 2009, she is averaging 5.45 digs per set as MSU’s libero.
RECORD WATCH — Several top 10 lists in the MSU record book are worth keeping an eye on this season in addition to those listed on page four of these notes. Calli Norman’s career hitting percentage of .304 ranks fourth in school history, though the sophomore needs 24 sets played to qualify, while her 2009 figure of .384 would rank second.
Cara Hackmann’s 5.45 digs per set average would be a school record if the season ended today.
SIX IS THE MAGIC NUMBER — The number six has been a milestone number the last 10 years in terms of winning streaks, as the Bears have strung together at least six consecutive wins a total of 14 times since the beginning of the 1999 season.
The Bears won six in a row this year from Sept. 3-11.
HOMECOMING — Missouri State has been dominant at home since 2000, compiling a home record of 119-20 for an .856 winning percentage at Hammons Student Center. The Bears have completed nine consecutive years with four or fewer losses in a home season.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK — Calli Norman was Missouri State’s first weekly honor of the season on Sept. 8, earning MVC Player of the Week honors. Norman hit .404 and averaged 3.36 kills and a 1.29 blocks per set in four Missouri State wins. She hit at least .375 in three matches, including a .611 showing with 13 kills versus Memphis.
Cara Hackmann was the Defensive Player of the Week Sept. 21 after totaling 46 digs (6.57/set) in MSU wins over Illinois State and Indiana State. She was also 48-for-48 in service reception chances.
Hackmann repeated the next week after she averaged 6.00 digs per set, served three aces and was perfect in 20 serve reception chances in MSU’s win over Wichita State.
Melissa Gmur was also honored Sept. 28 as the Player of the Week. She dished out 50 assists, had 17 digs and directed the offense to a .289 hitting percentage, nearly 200 points higher than WSU’s opponent average of .098 entering the match.
Kelley Michnowicz was the Player of the Week Oct. 5 after averaging 4.00 kills, 1.83 digs, 1.67 blocks and hitting .413 in wins at Drake and Creighton.
Bethany Fuller earned league defensive honors that same week with 2.67 blocks per set average. Fuller recorded eight blocks in each match and averaged 3.00 kills on .412 hitting offensively as well.
PRESEASON POLL — Coming off four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, the Bears are picked to finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2009 by the league’s coaches. Wichita State is the preseason choice to repeat as league champions.
PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE — Cara Hackmann and Calli Norman occupy two of the eight spots on this year’s preseason all-MVC team. Hackmann was a second-team all-league choice in 2008 and made the all-freshman team in 2007, while Norman was a member of the league’s first and freshman teams a year ago.
VOLLEYBALL BLOG — Get an inside look at the Bears this season with Sara Staubach’s volley-blog. The senior outside hitter will update the blog periodically at blogs.missouristate.edu./bears.
