CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Behind a solid .277 hitting percentage and a scrappy defense that piled up 67 digs, Missouri State picked up a straight-set win over fifth-seeded Bradley Saturday afternoon at the McLeod Center in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Championship.
 
The eighth-seeded Bears (13-18) won by set scores of 25-22, 25-23, 25-18 and advance to take on No. 4 Illinois State (16-15) at 3 p.m. Sunday. MoState and the Redbirds split their regular season meetings, with each team winning on the other's home court.
 
Senior Morgan Sprague dished out 42 assists and became the third Bear with 4,000 career helpers early in the match, adding 16 digs for her 21^st double-double of the season.
 
Freshman Rilynn Finley led all players with 16 kills, classmate Lexi Weinberg added 11 and Iva Halacheva had 10, while all-MVC second-teamer Maddy Bushnell had eight without an error on .471 hitting. Kate Owen led the Bears with 22 digs.
 
MoState's top three attackers combined for 15 kills in the opening set, which the Bears led 17-13 on a Finley kill off Sprague's milestone assist. Bradley (15-16) rattled off a 5-0 run to lead 18-17, then served consecutive aces to lead 22-19. Undeterred, MSU closed on a 6-0 run with five kills and a Bradley error for the win.
 
The Bears never trailed the second set and led by as many as five points at 18-13. Bradley pulled within a point on four occasions and each time MoState answered with a kill, with Finley's seventh of the set providing MSU with the 2-0 match lead.
 
The third set was tied 11 times with eight lead changes, the last of each during a 5-0 Missouri State run that turned a 12-11 deficit into a 16-12 lead. Missouri State carried the momentum from there to the sweep.