Volleyball Ready for Weekend Trip to Hoosier State

Missouri State at Indiana State/Evansville
Indiana State	Oct. 18, 5 p.m. CT ISU Arena Terre Haute, Ind. Live Stats \| ESPN+
Evansville	Oct. 19, 5 p.m. Meeks Family Fieldhouse Evansville, Ind. Live Stats \| ESPN+
Missouri State	Game Notes Volleyball Home Page
Indiana State	Volleyball Home Page
Evansville	Volleyball Home Page

Storylines for the Weekend
1) Missouri State (7-12, 1-6 Missouri Valley Conference) visits the Hoosier State this weekend for matches at Indiana State (3-15, 0-6) at 5 p.m. Central on Friday and Evansville (2-16, 1-5) at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Bears hit the midway point of the league slate on Saturday before closing out the conference schedule with seven of nine matches at home.

2) Missouri State is 74-4 all-time against Indiana State with a 36-3 road record against the Sycamores. ISU has won two of the last three meetings in Terre Haute.
    The Bears are 53-8 versus Evansville with a 23-6 road mark. The teams have split the last 10 meetings, with UE winning three of the last four at Meeks Family Fieldhouse.

3) Missouri State is in the top 10 nationally in five statistical categories. The Bears lead the country in total digs (1,381), rank second in total attacks (2,921), fifth digs per set (17.94), eighth in total kills (1,004) and eighth in total assists (935).

4) MSU has three senior starters from the same recruiting class - Maddy Bushnell, Kate Owen and Morgan Sprague - who have already stamped their names on the record book.
    Bushnell set MSU's freshman record with a .343 hitting percentage in 2021, and currently ranks 12th in school history with a .278 attack efficiency for her career.
    Owen ranks ninth at MSU with 1,330 career digs, while her 40 aces in 2023 were the third-most by a Bear in the 25-point scoring era (since 2008).
    Sprague passed 3,000 career assists in the second match of the year and sits third in MSU history in that category with 3,564. She ranks 20th with 1,122 digs as one of three Bears with 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs in a career. Sprague is third nationally in total assists in 2024.

5) A pair of freshman outside hitters have made an immediate impact for the Bears.
    Aniya Joseph won MVC Freshman of the Week in each of the first two weeks of the year, and became the sixth player in league history to claim that award and Player of the Week in the same week on Sept. 9. She reached 100 kills in MSU's seventh match of the year, the quickest for a freshman in school history. Lily Johnson reached 100 in her eighth match. Joseph is also the only MSU freshman on record (since 1987) to debut with a 20-kill match.
    Rilynn Finley, meanwhile, is the only Bears freshman on record to begin a career with three consecutive double-figure kill matches and got to 100 in her ninth career match.

6) MSU has ranked in the top 32 nationally in total digs in three of the last four seasons, finishing 10th in 2020-21, 11th in 2023 and 32nd in 2022. So far in 2024, the Bears lead the nation with 1,381 total digs and fourth with a 17.94 per set average.

7) MoState has notched the top four ace averages since the 25-point scoring era began in the last four seasons, with at least 1.38 per set in each season under Coach McRoberts.
    The Bears have served double-digit ace totals 20 times in the last five seasons.

8) Head coach Steven McRoberts is in his fifth season in Springfield and 28th overall as a head coach with 651 victories to his credit, good for 11th among active Division I coaches.

Volleyball Ready for Weekend Trip to Hoosier State

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Players Mentioned

Maddy Bushnell

Rilynn Finley

Aniya Joseph

Kate Owen

Morgan Sprague

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