COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri State wrapped up play at the Mizzou Invitational Saturday morning with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-22) loss to Abilene Christian at the Hearnes Center.

Sophomore Maddy Bushnell led the Bears with 11 kills on .474 hitting, her career-high in a three-set match, while Morgan Sprague tied a career high with four service aces. Missouri State served nine aces as a team.

The Bears (1-5) got off to a tremendous start after Sprague had two aces and a kill in an opening 6-0 run. Bushnell added two aces in a 4-0 spurt to 11-3, but the Wildcats (2-3) slowly clawed back to gain a 21-20 lead. The teams sided out to 23-22 and ACU finished the win with two kills.

Abilene Christian used a 4-0 run to lead 7-3 in the second and methodically pulled away on the strength of .364 hitting, then began the third set with four consecutive points.

Missouri State evened the score at 8-8 on Azyah Green's solo block, and tied again at 9, 15 and 16 before a Manuela Ibarguen kill gave the Bears their first lead of the period at 17-16. ACU scored the next three points, Sprague served consecutive aces for 21-all, and the Wildcats answered with another 3-0 run to gain match point at 24-21 before hitting the winning kill two points later.

Ibarguen finished with a match-high 14 digs to go with seven kills against one error. Green added four blocks. ACU hit .275 compared to .155 for the Bears.

Missouri State stays on the road next week for the Dayton Invitational, taking on Villanova and Illinois on Sept. 9 and Dayton on Sept. 10.