Storylines for the MVC Tournament
1) Missouri State (12-18, 6-12 Missouri Valley Conference) brings the No. 8 seed into the MVC Tournament in Cedar Falls, Iowa, qualifying for the field on the final day of the regular season. MoState will play fifth-seeded Bradley at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, with the winner taking on No. 4 Illinois State at 3 p.m. Sunday.
2) Missouri State is 36-32 all-time in the conference tournament with titles in 1990, 1993, 2005, 2008 and 2017.
3) Missouri State is in the top 12 nationally in five statistical categories. The Bears rank third in total digs (2,106), 12th in digs per set (17.55), second in total attacks (4,532), seventh in total assists (1,457) and sixth in total kills (1,568).
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 .284 attack efficiency for her career.
   Owen ranks seventh at MSU with 1,503 career digs, while her 82 matches with 10 or more digs rank fifth at MoState.
   Sprague sits third in MSU history in career assists with 3,990 and ranks 14th with 1,249 digs as one of three Bears with 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs in a career. She also ranks eighth at MSU with 61 career matches with 10-plus digs.
5) A pair of freshman outside hitters have made an immediate impact for the Bears.
Aniya Joseph leads all MVC freshmen with a 3.56 kill average, while Finley leads the league's rookies with 347 total kills, good for fourth all-time among MSU freshmen.
   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 was the MVC's Freshman of the Week on Nov. 4 and 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 rank fourth in the nation with 2,106 total digs and 12th with a 17.55 per set average.
7) MoState has notched the top five ace averages since the 25-point scoring era began in the last five seasons, with at least 1.20 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 656 victories to his credit, good for 11th among active Division I coaches.
