INDIANAPOLIS – After winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship on Sunday to earn an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament, the Bears will head to Iowa to play the Hawkeyes at 6:00 p.m. on Nov. 15.
 
The Bears (13-4-3) and Hawkeyes (13-2-5) last met in 2005 in a road match that ended with a 1-1 tie. Iowa exited the Big Ten tournament in the quarterfinals when they tied Washington 0-0 and dropped 5-4 in penalty kicks.
 
This will be the Bears' fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. In 2000, MoState travelled to Arizona State where the Bears fell 2-0. The Bears returned to the tourney in 2017 and lost in penalty kicks at Oklahoma State. Most recently, the Bears faced No. 9 Arkansas in Fayetteville where they lost 6-0 in 2022.
 
Missouri State brings a 13-4-3 overall record into the NCAA Tournament with a 9-0-1 conference record. The Bears were the No. 1 seed in the MVC Tournament and defeated Drake 4-0 to win the title. With nine wins in a row, MoState enters the fight for a national title with the longest active winning streak in the country.
 
The 64-team playoff consists of 30 automatic qualifiers and 34 at-large bids. Each game is single elimination. The tournament culminates in the College Cup, which is held in Cary, N.C. The semifinal games will be on Dec. 6 with the final on Dec. 9.