SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State picked up its second consecutive home sweep Friday with a 25-19, 25-17, 25-23 victory over visiting Valparaiso at Hammons Student Center.
 
MoState (10-14, 4-8 Missouri Valley Conference) hit .276 as a team with just 13 attack errors, while the defense had 51 digs and seven blocks to hold the Beacons (14-10, 6-6) to a .137 efficiency.
 
Rilynn Finley led all players with 14 kills on .281 hitting, and Iva Halacheva added 10 winners and hit .280. Morgan Sprague dished out 34 assists and Kate Owen tallied 16 digs. Neele'ge' Sims was MSU's block leader with four, and Sprague served two of the team's five aces.
 
The Bears played from ahead for all but two points in the match, with Valpo's 1-0 leads in the first and third periods the only occasions that the Beacons were ahead on the scoreboard.
 
A 7-0 MSU run with Sprague on serve put MSU up 13-6 in the first, and the Beacons committed seven more attack errors than the Bears in the opening period to help MoState overcome a 15-11 kill deficit.
 
Missouri State jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the second and kept the margin at 4-7 until the final point. Finley led the charge with seven kills and the Bears had 17 as a team on .316 hitting.
 
The Bears led for the majority of the final set but never by more than three points. Valpo tied at 19 and 20 when Sprague had a kill and a block to make it 22-20. The Beacons pulled even again at 23-all and Finley answered with a kill for match point before Valpo sent an attack into the net to give MSU the victory.
 
The Bears host UIC at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Flames (17-7, 9-3) won 3-0 at Southern Illinois on Friday.