The Starting Lineup
- Missouri State softball (17-31) enters the MVC Softball Championship as the No. 6 seed after posting a 13-14 conference record in 2024. MSU leads all schools with 7 MVC Tournament titles and 75 conference tournament victories. The Bears' last MVC Tournament crown came in 2022 in Springfield.
- MSU will open the tournament on Wednesday (4:30 p.m.) against the No. 11 seed Indiana State. The Bears and Sycamores faced off in the final weekend of the regular season in Springfield with Indiana State taking two out of three games in the series. It was a tightly-contested series as all three games were decided by a combined five runs (4-2, 5-6 and 1-3).
- Head coach Holly Hesse, who announced her plan to retire following the 2024 season, is set to coach in her final MVC Tournament. Hesse owns a 920-888-2 career record in her 36th season as the leader of the Missouri State softball program. She is the second-winningest coach in MVC history in both overall (920) and conference (413) victories. She ranks 19th among active Division I coaches in career victories.
- In MVC games this season, the Bears led the league with 30 home runs, while ranking second in slugging percentage (.474) and batting average (.295), and third in RBI (120). MSU had six players bat over .320 in conference action, including five starters.
- Annie Mueller (Sr., Pacific, Mo.) is MSU's top power hitter this season as she leads the Bears with 17 home runs, 48 RBI and a .710 slugging percentage on the year. In the series at Evansville a couple of weeks ago, Mueller broke MSU's single-season home run and RBI records en route to earning her first-career MVC Player of the Week honor. This season, 23 of her 40 hits have gone for extra bases and 14 of her 26 hits in league play were home runs. Against MVC opponents this season, Mueller batted .321 with 34 RBI and a .852 slugging percentage.
- Olivia Krehbiel (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) has cemented her legacy as one of the best hitters in Missouri State softball history. In her final season as a Bear, Krehbiel has broken the MSU career records for home runs (30), RBI (129), doubles (46), runs scored (128), total bases (334) and grand slams (4). She leads MSU this season with 35 runs scored, 48 hits, 10 doubles and 27 walks.
- Gracie Johnston (Sr., Augusta, Kan.) ranks 5th nationally and first in the MVC with seven saves on the season. Her seven saves are tied for the Missouri State single-season record, joining Melissa Porche (2006) at the top of the list. She also ranks 7th nationally with 39 appearances in the circle this season.
- Kayla Ulrich (Fr., Sullivan, Mo.) leads the MVC with a .383 batting average in her freshman campaign, and her average rose to .408 against MVC foes.
- MSU is 11-1 this season when scoring six or more runs and 12-1 when out-hitting opponents.
MVC Tournament History
Missouri State owns a 75-50 (.600) record in the Gateway/Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, which is the most tournament victories by any school in the league. MSU also owns the most conference tournament titles in the MVC with seven crowns.
The Bears' last tournament championship victory came in 2022 when Missouri State hosted the tournament in Springfield. In that 2022 run, the Bears defeated Illinois State, 5-1, in the semifinals before knocking off the regular season champions Northern Iowa, 10-4, in the title game. MSU would go on to the Columbia Regional in 2022, where the Bears earned a 2-0 victory over Illinois and dropped a couple of two-run games to No. 15 national seed Missouri.
