DES MOINES, Iowa – Missouri State opened the first leg of its difficult weekend road trip in Iowa with a 3-0 loss at Drake Friday evening at the Knapp Center. The Bulldogs, who were picked to finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference this season, won all three sets by 25-19 scores.
 
Maddy Bushnell led the MSU (6-8, 0-2) offense with 10 kills while hitting above .300 for the 43^rd time in her career. With 16 digs, Kate Owen moved up a spot to 13^th on MSU's career list, while Morgan Sprague's 18 assists and 12 digs were good for her 10^th double-double of the season.
 
The Bears added 64 digs to their nation-leading total, though the Bulldogs (5-7, 1-0) scooped 73 and owned leads of .248-.140 in attack efficiency, 46-35 in kills and 6-3 in blocks.
 
The opening set was tied seven times with four lead changes, the last of each coming during a 7-1 run that resulted in a 17-12 Drake lead. Bushnell had five kills for the Bears, but Drake tallied 16 as a team on .265 hitting.
 
Drake jumped ahead 5-0 in the second set and led for the duration, limiting the Bears .047 hitting.
 
The third set was 15-12 in favor of the home team when the Bulldogs used a 5-0 run to put it away. Rilynn Finley finished strong with five kills in the period and the Bears committed just two errors in the final set, but Drake was equally good offensively.
 
Missouri State travels to preseason MVC favorite UNI (6-7, 1-0) at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Panthers swept Southern Illinois on Friday.