SPRINGFIELD - Top-seed Missouri State men's soccer (12-2-3) failed to advance to the championship of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament for the first time since 2018 with its 1-0 loss to No. 5-seed Evansville (10-6-3) Wednesday night at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium. 

The Purple Aces scored in the opening moments of the second half off a header from senior forward Nacho Diaz Barragan from a free kick. The Evansville win came just 12 days following Missouri State's 6-1 victory over the Purple Aces at home. It also snapped Missouri State's 13-match unbeaten streak that went back to Sept. 6.

"We didn't score, and if you don't score, you can't win," head coach Michael Seabolt said. "We had chances, but we didn't take advantage of them."

Missouri State came within inches from taking the lead 90 seconds into the match. Junior forward Ollie Bate launched a shot that went off the crossbar. The Bears had multiple opportunities before and after the Evansville goal, but could not string chances together to breach the net. 

A key moment in the match came in the 33rd minute with a clutch stop by the Evansville defense. UE freshman goalkeeper Michael Mroz handled a pass from freshman defender Martin Wurschmidt from outside the goal box, resulting in a rare chance for a MoState free kick from within the box. Senior forward Jesus Barea fired a point-blank shot that was stopped by Evansville's defensive wall. 

The Bears prevented the Purple Aces from attempting a shot in the first half and held them to a season-low three shots for the match. Missouri State has held its opponent to three shots in consecutive games, doing so against Drake in a win that clinched the MVC regular season championship.

"We talked about toughness, being a team and supporting each other," Seabolt said. That is what we are going to do. We're going to get back to work."

Evansville got on the board with its first shot attempt from Barragan in the 50th minute, who took the header off a free kick from redshirt freshman midfielder Jacopo Fedrizzi. Barea nearly got the equalizer half a minute later on the ensuing kickoff. Redshirt senior James Jennings fired a pass to Barea on the run, but his shot went off the right post and out of play. Barea, one of the nation's leaders in goals scored, led the Bears with four of the team's 11 shots. 

Barea again had a shot deflected on a cross in the 65th minute. Mroz knocked it away in the direction of senior forward Fumiya Shiraishi, who didn't have enough room for a clean look on the rebound. The Bears took eight corner kicks evenly split across each half, the most since they had 10 in their 7-0 win over Northern Illinois on Oct. 6.

Evansville will move on to the conference championship match following consecutive road wins over ranked opponents. The Purple Aces will face No. 3-seed Bowling Green (12-5-2) on Saturday at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.

"We believe that we have done enough to earn a top 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament," Seabolt said. "The guys are league champions and to go 13 matches without a loss says a lot about our team's consistent high-level performance."

No. 11-ranked Missouri State will await its fate in hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament selection show will be on Monday, Nov. 18 at noon. No. 11-ranked  Missouri State will host a public watch party for the event in the Prime Overtime Club at Great Southern Bank Arena. Missouri State will host a public watch party for the event in the Prime Overtime Club at Great Southern Bank Arena.

"We're looking forward to Monday," Seabolt said. "We're hopefully hosting a game next week. We need the support of the fans and the community, and we look forward to playing in front of Missouri State University in Springfield."