Volleyball Bears Set for Visit to Drake and UNI

Missouri State at Drake/UNI
Drake	Sept. 27, 6 p.m. Knapp Center Des Moines, Iowa Live Stats \| ESPN+
UNI	Sept. 28, 5 p.m. McLeod Center Cedar Falls, Iowa Live Stats \| ESPN+
Missouri State	Game Notes Volleyball Home Page
Drake	Volleyball Home Page
UNI	Volleyball Home Page

Storylines for the Weekend
1) Missouri State (6-7, 0-1 Missouri Valley Conference) heads north this weekend to visit Drake (4-7) at 6 p.m. Friday and UNI (5-7) at 5 p.m. Saturday.

2) Missouri State owns a 66-13 series lead on Drake. The Bulldogs have won the last four meetings after the Bears took 42 of the previous 43. MSU leads 28-7 in Des Moines.
        UNI holds a 58-28 lead in the all-time series, but that margin shrinks to 9-8 UNI in the last 17 meetings. The Bears are 5-36 against the Panthers in Cedar Falls.

3) Missouri State is in the top four nationally in five statistical categories. The Bears lead the country in total digs (985), ranked second in total attacks (2,024), third in total assists (662), third in total kills (709) and fourth in digs per set (18.24).

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 .279 attack efficiency for her career.
    Owen ranks 14th at MSU with 1,239 career digs, while her 40 aces in 2023 were the third-most by a Bear in the 25-point scoring era (since 2008).
    Sprague passed 3,000 career assists in the second match of the year and sits third in MSU history in that category with 3,408. She ranks 22nd with 1,041 digs as one of three Bears with 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs in a career. Sprague is third nationally in total assists in 2024.

5) A pair of freshman outside hitters have made an immediate impact for the Bears.
    Aniya 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.
    Rilynn Finley, meanwhile, 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 lead the nation with 985 total digs and fourth with an 18.24 per set average.

7) MoState has notched the top four ace averages since the 25-point scoring era began in the last four seasons, with at least 1.38 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 650 victories to his credit, good for 10th among active Division I coaches.

Volleyball Bears Set for Visit to Drake and UNI

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Players Mentioned

Maddy Bushnell

Rilynn Finley

Aniya Joseph

Kate Owen

Morgan Sprague

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