On The Pitch
• The Missouri State Bears face former Missouri Valley Conference rival Drake at home on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 6:00 p.m. This will be followed by a Springfield Public Schools game at 8:30 p.m.
• The Bears are 4-5-2 on the season. The Bears won their latest match against South Florida 3-1, handing the Bulls their first lost of the season.
• The Bears are currently seventh in the American Conference standings with six total points and three matches to play in the regular season. Missouri State's next two opponents, Memphis and Tulsa, sit directly ahead of the Bears in a three-way tie for fourth with nine points, meaning MoState will have plenty of say as it fights to secure a spot in the six-team conference tournament field. The Bears host first-place Charlotte in the regular season finale on Nov. 2.
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Fumiya Shiraishi has scored or assisted 9-of-14 goals scored by the Bears this season. He is a three-time American Conference Offensive Player of the Week, the first Bear in history to win three offensive weekly conference award honors in a single season.
• Senior goalkeeper
Will Lowry is third in Bears career leader in goals-against-average, with an 0.74 average. The record holder Michael Creek held an 0.69 average from 2018-21. Lowry ranked fifth nationally in 2024 in goalkeeper goals against average (.674), letting past only nine goals in more than 1,200 minutes of play.
• Missouri State leads the series again the Bulldogs 23-12-9. The Bears won the last meeting in last year's MVC Tournament game, with a 1-0 scoreline.
• Since the beginning of the 2019 season, Missouri State holds the best Division I overall record of 86-20-12 (.780), second best conference record of 47-5-4 (.875) and fifth-best home record of 48-9-6 (.810). The Bears had the 15th-best win percentage in 2024 (.722).
• MSU has made six straight NCAA appearances, joining Clemson, Georgetown, Indiana, Marshall, Wake Forest and Pittsburgh as the only seven DI teams in the nation to make every tournament since 2019.
• Missouri State was ranked in the first two United Soccer Coaches Polls in 2025 and has been ranked in at least one poll in eight consecutive seasons.
• The Bears are in their first season in the American Conference in 2025 after spending the previous 34 seasons in the Missouri Valley. MoState enjoyed plenty of success in the MVC, with the program's 12 regular season championships, four conference tournament crowns and nine NCAA Tournament appearances all coming since 1997.
• MSU is picked to finish fifth in the American Conference this season with a first-place vote. The Bears are just two points from second in a tight preseason poll, and
Alex Matthews is a preseason all-league selection. Matthews is also one of 29 players on the Hermann Trophy Watch List, given annually to the nations top player.
• The Bears return four all-Missouri Valley Conference selections from a season ago, including first-team pick
Alex Matthews and second-team choices
James Jennings,
Fumiya Shiraishi and
Will Lowry.
