Storylines for the Weekend
1) Missouri State (7-10, 1-4 Missouri Valley Conference) begins a four-match road swing with visits to UIC (11-6, 3-2) at 6 p.m. Friday and Valparaiso (9-8, 1-4) at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Bears and Beacons have played more volleyball than almost anyone else since the beginning of the 2020 season, with Valpo ranking second nationally with 535 sets played and the Bears third at 513. MoState is 4-3 versus VU over that span, while those seven matches took 27 sets to complete.
2) The Bears are 8-6-1 against UIC, resuming the series after a 34-year hiatus in 2022 when the Flames joined the league. UIC is 3-1 against the Bears in MVC matches, and won the only meeting in Chicago, 3-0 on Sept. 23 of last season.
   Missouri State is 10-6 all-time versus Valpo and 8-6 since the Beacons joined the MVC in 2017. The Bears are 2-3 against VU on the road, last winning at the ARC in 2018.
3) Missouri State is in the top 10 nationally in five statistical categories. The Bears lead the country in total digs (1,215), rank second in total attacks (2,552), fourth digs per set (17.87), ninth in total kills (883) and 10th in total assists (822).
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 .279 attack efficiency for her career.
   Owen ranks 10th at MSU with 1,294 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 3,506. She ranks 22nd with 1,086 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.  Â
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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.
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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 1,215 total digs and fourth with an 17.87 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 10th among active Division I coaches.
