EVANSVILLE, Ind. – In Missouri State's first match at Evansville since former UE head coach Manolo Concepcion joined the MSU staff, the Purple Aces came away with a 3-1 (25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 25-21) victory over the volleyball Bears Friday evening at Meeks Family Fieldhouse.

Now with two matches to play in the regular season, the Bears (9-21, 6-10 Missouri Valley Conference) sit a half match behind Valparaiso for the sixth and final spot in the league tournament field, with matches at Indiana State (4-11) at 4 p.m. Saturday and a home tilt with Southern Illinois (5-11) on Nov. 22 remaining on the schedule.

The Bears held a 9-6 lead in the first set before the score was tied at each point from 9-16. Sarabi Worsley-Gilbert's kill capped a 4-0 run to put the Bears ahead 19-16, Kennedee Anderson's ace made it 21-18, then Evansville (16-10, 7-8) had its own 4-0 run to lead 22-21. The teams traded service errors before UE's Alondra Vazquez hit back-to-back kills for the win on the way to 29 in the match.

It was another early lead for MSU in the second, this time 8-5, and Evansville turned the tables with a 17-5 run to lead 22-13. Aubrey Cheffey responded with two kills and block for 22-16, but the rally stopped there as the Aces held on for the 2-0 lead.

The third set saw four lead changes and nine ties to 14-14 before the Bears pulled away. Freshman Brooklyn Cink had three kills in a 9-2 run to 23-16, and Laynie Dake and Amelia Flynn closed it out with two more as Missouri State piled up 20 kills on .326 hitting in the period.

Despite 21 kills by Evansville in the fourth set, the Bears were in position to extend the match late. Chloe Rear had two kills and a block in a 5-0 run to 15-11, and MSU still led 18-16 on a Dake kill, but the Aces proved too much in the end, with Vazquez providing two more kills and Melanie Feliciano adding three of her 22 kills in a closing 9-3 run to give UE its fourth ever win over Missouri State and first since 2012.

Missouri State hit .193 with 55 kills in the match, led by Rear's 13 and 10 each from Dake and Cheffey. Rear added 21 assists and seven digs, Emelie Orlando had her second career double-double with 24 assists and 10 digs, and Amelia Flynn added 19 digs. UE hit .276 with 63 kills, and owned an 80-71 lead in total digs and 9-8 edge in blocks.