SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State ended the 2024 Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 (25-15, 24-26, 25-10, 25-21) loss to Saint Louis at Hammons Student Center.
 
Iva Halacheva hit .281 with 14 kills to lead the offense and earn all-tournament honors for the Bears (5-5). The rest of the all-tournament team included UTA's Brianna Ford (MVP), Paige Reagor and Mollie Blank, Weber State's Baylee Bodily and Saane Munyer, and SLU's Delaney Rice.
 
The opening set was tied at 12-all when the Billikens (4-5) rattled off a 13-3 run to close out the win.
 
The Bears hit .467 with 17 kills in the second period to even the match, with Halacheva going 6-for-8 on the attack and GG Carvacho hitting five kills.
 
It was all SLU in the third set, as the Billikens piled up five blocks and held the Bears to a negative hitting efficiency.
 
MoState turned it around in the fourth, leading by as many as five points at 14-9 before SLU grabbed its first lead at 22-21. That came during a sequence of four consecutive Billiken kills before an MSU error capped a 5-0 closing spurt for the visitors.
 
Saint Louis owned a 59-43 lead in kills, .351-.171 margin in attack efficiency and served 10 aces. Kate Owen led MSU with 16 digs and Morgan Sprague added 38 assists.
 
Missouri State is back on the road next week at the Saluki Invitational. The Bears begin Missouri Valley Conference play on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Southern Illinois and face SEMO and SIUE the following two days in Carbondale.