SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Missouri State dominated in a sweep of Texas A&M-Commerce in Friday afternoon's season opener and fell in straight sets to host Texas-San Antonio in the nightcap of the UTSA Invitational.

The volleyball Bears (1-1) finish play in San Antonio on Saturday at 11 a.m. against Texas Southern. TSU went 0-2 in Friday's action.

Texas A&M-Commerce Recap (MSU won 25-17, 25-15, 25-14)
The Bears won their season opener for the fourth time in five seasons with a sweep of Texas A&M-Commerce in a match filled with both individual and team superlatives.

MoState served 11 aces for the team's highest total in a three-set match since recording 14 against Bradley in September 2007, and reached double figures in a sweep for the first time since logging 10 aces versus Wyoming in September 2017.

Teagan Polcovich and Kate Owen each served four aces to match or exceed career highs, while Polcovich scooped a team-high 12 digs to surpass 900 in her career.

The Bears held the Lions to a .011 hitting percentage, the lowest figure for an opponent since limiting Central Michigan to -.030 in September 2018. Missouri State's 10 blocks played a big role in the defensive effort, led by Neele'ge' Sims with seven and Maddy Bushnell with six.

Katie Wemhoener started off the season with an ace, and a 5-0 run that included a pair of Lindsay Lahr kills put the Bears up 10-7 in the first set. The Lions pulled even at 13 before Owen had two aces and Azyah Green tallied two kills in a clinching 7-0 run.

The Bears responded to an 8-4 deficit in the second set with a 7-0 run that included all four of Polcovich's aces, and the MoState lead continued to grow to a comfortable win. MSU never trailed the third set and used yet another 7-0 run to lead 15-6 before cruising to victory.

Green hit .600 with 10 kills and one error and shared the team kill lead with Deja Bickers. Josie Halbleib recorded career highs of five kills and 16 assists.

The Bears hit between .240 and .258 each set for a .247 total in the match, and led the Lions in every statistical category.

UTSA Recap (UTSA won 25-21, 25-12, 25-19)
UTSA (2-0) led for the bulk of the contest to hand the Bears their first loss of the season in straight sets.

Bickers had nine kills to lead MoState for the second straight match, while Green's three blocks moved her into a tie for seventh on MSU's career list with 470 stuffs.

UTSA turned the first set in its favor with a 10-2 run to lead 14-8, and the Bears got no closer than 20-18 after that. Bickers had four kills to lead the way, but the Roadrunners held a three-point advantage at the service line thanks in part to four MSU errors.

The Roadrunners started fast in the next two sets, leading 4-0 in the second and 5-0 in the third, and the Bears never recovered in either period despite fighting to the final bell with a late 7-1 run in the last set.

UTSA led across the board statistically, including a .260-.090 advantage in attack efficiency.