CHICAGO -- The 25th-ranked Missouri State volleyball team finished its 18-0 run through the Missouri Valley Conference regular season schedule Saturday evening with a 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-14, 25-10) victory at Loyola. The Bears improved to 26-5 overall with their 19th consecutive win - the school's longest streak since 1975 - while extending their MVC win streak to 34 matches and NCAA-leading road streak to 22 consecutive wins.

The Bears take the No. 1 seed into the MVC Tournament in Normal, Ill., over Thanksgiving weekend, and will open play at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, against the winner of Thursday's match between No. 4 Drake and fifth-seeded Indiana State.

Junior libero Emily Butters broke Cara Hackmann's school record of 671 digs in a season during the first set, lifting 27 digs in the match to push her season total to 690. Lynsey Wright hit .528 with a season-high 21 kills, Lily Johnson added a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs, and Aubrey Cheffey hit .304 with 10 kills.

The match began with two big runs for each team, with 6-1 and 5-0 spurts by Loyola (5-24, 4-14) and 7-0 and 5-1 runs by the Bears resulting in a 13-12 MSU lead. The scoring stabilized after that, with 10 ties to 24-24 before the Ramblers used a kill and an MSU error to claim the two-point win.

Wright had four early kills on the way to a 9-5 lead in the second set, and Cheffey scored three in a row to end a 5-0 run with the Bears up 14-8. The Ramblers rallied for a 22-all tie with a 4-0 run of their own, and Lauren Boone and Cheffey followed with kills for 24-22. Cheffey's seventh kill of the set gave MSU the win after Loyola fought off a set point.

Missouri State fell behind 4-1 in the third set but took the lead for good during a 4-0 run for a 9-6 score. Another 4-0 run made it 17-9 Bears, and Loyola closed to 17-13 before committing five costly attack errors that helped MSU close on an 8-1 run.

The Bears jumped ahead 4-0 in the fourth set and led by at least three points the rest of the way. Missouri State broke the set open with an 11-1 run to 20-7, and held the Ramblers to four kills against eight errors in the final period and .046 hitting in the match.

Missouri State hit .241 in the contest and owned leads of 54-39 in kills and 70-59 in digs. The Bears added eight service aces, with Johnson, Daniele Messa and Brianne Dixon serving two each.