SPRINGFIELD – Aniya Joseph had 20 kills and Rilynn Finley and Iva Halacheva added 14 apiece Saturday evening to lead the Missouri State volleyball team to a 3-1 (25-23, 16-25, 25-18, 25-18) victory over Bradley at Hammons Student Center.
 
Joseph's second 20-kill match of the year was accompanied by 15 digs for her sixth double-double of the season, and the Bears (7-10, 1-4 Missouri Valley Conference) piled up 59 winners in the match compared to 49 for Bradley (8-8, 3-1) while owning a .199-.155 lead in attack efficiency.
 
Kate Owen led five Bears in double figures with 18 digs, moving into a tie with Melinda Bingham for 10^th place on MSU's career digs list with 1,294. Morgan Sprague had 17 digs and 46 assists for her 11^th double-double of the year.
 
The opening set was tied at each point from 16 through 23 when Sprague and Maddy Bushnell paired for a block and Joseph followed with the winning kill to give MSU the 1-0 lead. Joseph and Halacheva had five kills each in the opening period.
 
Bradley used an 8-1 run in the second to lead 14-7 and forced the Bears into 12 errors to even the contest, and MoState roared back by hitting .371 in the third set. Finley had five kills by the time it was 11-8, added a solo block for 19-13, and finished the set with six winners alongside Joseph with the same total.
 
Owen served consecutive aces to make it 10-5 in the fourth and the Bears led the rest of the way. The Braves got as close as 14-13, Bushnell had a block and kill for 19-14, and Finley added three more kills down the stretch.
 
Missouri State added 81 digs to its NCAA-leading total, served five aces and recorded nine blocks, with five of those coming from Neele'ge' Sims.
 
MoState is back on the road the next two weeks, beginning with an Oct. 11 match at UIC.