SPRINGFIELD – For the third consecutive match, Missouri State's volleyball team needed extra time in the fifth set to determine a winner, and in heartbreaking fashion visiting Murray State scored the final three points top the Bears 22-25, 21-25, 25-20, 28-26, 17-15 Friday evening at Hammons Student Center.

Senior Manuela Ibarguen led Missouri State with 22 kills, reaching 20 for a fourth straight match, something not done by a Bear since Joleen Meservy had five in a row in 1997. She added 12 digs for her seventh consecutive double-double.

Iva Halacheva hit .282 with a career-high 16 kills, Lindsay Lahr served a career-best six aces – the most for an MSU player since March 2021 – Morgan Sprague had a career-high 21 digs, and the Bears (5-14, 2-5 Missouri Valley Conference) recorded a season-best 16 blocks in their fourth 3-2 loss in row.

Missouri State hit above .200 in each of the first two sets on the way to a 2-0 lead, closing the opening frame on a 4-0 run and ending the second with a 5-1 spurt.

Murray State (7-11, 3-5) jumped out 20-8 in the third before the Bears closed all the way to 24-20, then spoiled a Missouri State match point at 26-25 in the fourth.

The Racers opened the fifth on a 4-0 run and led 11-8 before Ibarguen and Halacheva each had two kills in a 5-1 run to a 13-12 lead. Ibarguen's 22nd kill tied it at 14-all after Murray held match point, and the Racers sent an attack long to give the Bears match point at 15-14, then tied it with a kill and took advantage of two errant attacks by the Bears for the win.

Missouri State's four consecutive five-setters is a first since Sept. 23-Oct. 1, 2016, while the Bears' 10 straight matches of four or more sets ties for the longest such streak in school history.

The Bears host Belmont (7-14, 3-5) at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Bruins lost 3-1 at Southern Illinois on Friday.