Season Opening Storylines
1) Missouri State begins a shortened fall season with two matches at Little Rock this weekend - a Sept. 19 exhibition contest at 4 p.m. before the official season opener for both clubs on Sept. 20 at 1 p.m.
2) MSU is the only Missouri Valley Conference school playing volleyball this fall. The league schedule will take place in the Spring 2021 semester, and results and statistics from fall matches will count. The Bears host Central Arkansas on Oct. 3 in their only remaining scheduled contest.
3) The Bears have a new head coach on the sideline this fall.
Steven McRoberts was hired in January and owns a .706 career winning percentage and a dozen conference championships in 23 seasons as a college head coach. McRoberts joins a select few to lead the Bears since the program's first official varsity season, with only Linda Dollar (1972-1995), Melissa Stokes (1996-2018) and Manolo Concepción (2019 - interim) handling the head coaching duties in nearly a half century of competition.
4) Half of Missouri State's 18-player roster this year has not suited up for the Bears in competition. The roster features two seniors, five juniors, five sophomores and six freshmen.
5) This weekend's coaching matchup features a combined 1,120 victories on the sideline, with MSU's
Steven McRoberts ranking 20th among active Division I coaches with 587 victories, and Little Rock's Van Compton ranking 23rd with 533 wins. McRoberts owns a 3-1 edge in head-to-head meetings between the two coaches, going 2-0 against Little Rock while at Ole Miss and 1-1 when he was in charge at Central Arkansas.
   Additionally, McRoberts grew in the Little Rock area in Sherwood, Ark.
The Opponent
This weekend will be Little Rock's first competition of the season, and the Trojans have 16 Sun Belt Conference matches scheduled for the fall. Little Rock was picked to finish fifth in the league's West Division, and has 10 newcomers on its 16-player roster. The Trojans went 6-22 last season and 4-12 in Sun Belt play. Head coach Van Compton enters her 33rd season at the helm and ranks 23rd among active Division I coaches with 533 career victories.
Series History
Missouri State is 3-2 all-time against Little Rock, and the teams have never met in Little Rock. The Bears' 3-1 win in Springfield in 2012 was the only meeting between the schools in the last decade.
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