SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State finished the regular season Wednesday evening with a 3-1 victory over Southern Illinois at Hammons Student Center and secured the eighth seed in the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Tournament thanks to Indiana State's win at Evansville a couple hours later.

The Bears (12-18, 6-12 MVC) tied Belmont for eighth place in the standings and earned the tie-break for the final spot in the bracket thanks to sweeping the Bruins on Oct. 26 in Springfield in the only meeting this season between the teams.

MoState will take on fifth-seeded Bradley at 3 p.m. Saturday at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with the winner advancing to play No. 4 Illinois State at 3 p.m. Sunday. The semifinal round is on Monday with the championship match scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 26.

Against the Salukis (10-19, 3-15), the Bears won by set scores of 25-20, 22-25, 25-10, 25-20 and held SIU to .036 hitting, the lowest for an MSU opponent this season.

Kate Owen became the seventh Bear to surpass 1,500 career digs late in the third set and finished with 19 in the match, while Brooke Eslinger led MoState with 21. Morgan Sprague added 12 and tallied her 20th double-double of the season with 35 assists.

Freshman Lexi Weinberg led all players with 13 kills on .343 hitting and Iva Halacheva had 12 winners. The Bears led 49-38 in kills and 83-74 in total digs.

The Bears took control of the opening set with a 5-0 run to lead 10-5. Both squads hit below .130, while Halacheva led MoState with seven kills and the defense scooped 28 digs.

SIU never trailed in the second set and finished with one more kill than hitting error, while Bears had one fewer kill than error as the teams combined for 20 kills and 20 errors.

Weinberg had five kills in a 9-0 run to 17-5 in the third set and went 6-for-7 on the attack in the period to lead the MSU offense to a .450 efficiency while hold the Salukis to -.125.

The Bears never trailed in the fourth, hitting .310 and limiting the Salukis to 10 kills.