SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State's Brooklyn Cink and Amelia Flynn became the first pair of MSU teammates with 20 kills apiece since 2015, combining for 49 on the night to lead the Bears to a 3-2 victory over Evansville.

Cink hit .288 with a career-high 25 kills, and Flynn had 24 on .291 hitting, adding 21 digs for MSU's first 20-20 match since Lily Johnson in 2017, as the Bears (11-2, 7-1 Missouri Valley Conference) remained atop the league standings with a 25-21, 21-25, 26-28, 25-16, 15-7 win.

Evansville (3-9, 2-8) made it a battle of outside hitters through the first four sets, with Melanie Feliciano (25) and Alondra Vazquez (23) combining for 48 kills in the match, and the duo that totaled the better hitting percentage in each of the first four sets led their respective teams to victory.

Then in the fifth, the Bears spread out the scoring, with Katie Wemhoener's fifth and sixth aces giving MSU leads of 8-5 and 10-5, and Alyssa Doucette and Azyah Green pairing up for back-to-back blocks to finish the win with Missouri State out-scoring the Aces 40-23 over the final two sets.

"We played some of our best volleyball of the season in the last two sets," head coach Steven McRoberts said after the match. "It was a phenomenal night for Brooklyn and Amelia, Azyah had a couple huge blocks at the end, and Katie had some amazing aces. It seemed like things came together for us in the fourth and fifth sets."

Missouri State served 10 aces in the match, reaching double figures for the sixth time this season, while Wemhoener became the first Bear with six aces since Daniele Messa in November 2016.

Cink and Flynn are also the first MSU teammates with at least 24 kills each since Joleen Meservy and Amanda Omar each exceeded 30 kills in a 1998 match, finishing the contest with their 10th and 11th double-doubles of the season, respectively. The match was also the eighth of Flynn's career with 20 kills, good for fifth in school history.

Kennedee Anderson handed out 50 assists and the Bears hit .265 as a team with season-high 70 kills. Teagan Polcovich added 20 digs and Green finished with five blocks as the Bears improved to 5-2 in five-setters this season.

Up next for the Bears is a March 7-8 series at Loyola.