On The Pitch
• The Missouri State Bears face Tulsa in an American Conference match on the road on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7:00 p.m.
• The Bears are 6-5-2 on the season. The Bears won their latest match against Memphis 1-0. Before that the Bears defeated Drake, (1-0) and South Florida (3-1), handing the Bulldogs and Bulls their first losses of the season.
• If the Bears beat Tulsa, they will qualify for the conference tournament. The Bears are currently tied at fifth with Tulsa and Memphis in the American Conference standings with nine total points and two matches to play in the regular season. If the Bears can win both of the remaining matches, they have a fighting chance to take out the regular season title. The Bears host Charlotte, which sits in a three-way tie for first with South Florida and Florida Atlantic, in the regular season finale on Nov. 2.
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Fumiya Shiraishi has scored or assisted 11-of-19 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 career in goals-against-average at MSU, 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.
• Tulsa leads the series 29-14-3. The Bears won the last meeting last year at home, with a 1-0 scoreline in the MVC Tournament game.
• Since the beginning of the 2019 season, Missouri State holds the best Division I overall record of 89-20-12 (.785), second best conference record of 49-5-4 (.879) and fifth-best home record of 50-9-6 (.815).
• 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 nation's 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.
