SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The 2011 Missouri State volleyball schedule has been completed and includes a total of 30 matches, 14 of those at Hammons Student Center in Springfield. The Bears will play nine matches against six teams that made the 2010 NCAA Tournament, including three during the non-conference schedule.

    The season opens August 26-27 in Norman, Okla., with matches against Oral Roberts, Southern Methodist and 2010 NCAA qualifier Oklahoma.
   
    The Bears then travel to the University of San Diego for matches against host and 2010 NCAA team USD, UC Riverside and Northeastern.

    The Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational takes place Sept. 8-10 with 11 matches and six teams over three days. Missouri State opens Thursday the 8th against Kansas State, plays Arkansas State on Friday and Hofstra and South Dakota State on Saturday. Arkansas-Pine Bluff is also in the field but will not play the Bears.

    Missouri Valley Conference play begins Sept. 16 at home against Illinois State, and the Bears will play a full 18-match home-and-home league schedule that ends Nov. 19 at ISU. The State Farm MVC Championship takes place Nov. 24-26, with the site to be announced later this month.

    Missouri State’s lone non-conference match after league play begins is a Sept. 25 trip to Stephen F. Austin.

    Ticket information can be obtained by calling the Missouri State athletics box office at (417) 836-7678.

    The 2011 season will be the 16th under head coach Melissa Stokes. Stokes has guided the Bears to a 335-155 mark since taking over in 1996, and the team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in six of the last eight seasons. Last year, the Bears went 21-10 overall and lost to Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament while reaching the 20-win mark for the 12th consecutive year, the seventh longest active streak in the country.