The Starting Lineup
- Missouri State softball (19-32) enters the MVC Tournament as the No. 5 seed after posting a 16-11 league record in 2025. MoState leads all schools with seven MVC Tournament titles and 77 conference tournament victories. The Bears' last tournament title came in 2022.
- Head coach Kasey Griffith is in her first season at the helm of the Bears program. She stepped into the lead role following the retirement of longtime head coach Holly Hesse. Griffith was named the seventh head coach in the history of the program on June 5, 2024, and this marks her first stint as a head coach. She has been on the MoState staff for the last two seasons, including serving as associate head coach in 2024.
- Griffith spent 10 seasons at this year's host Drake from 2013-2022, including eight years as a full-time assistant coach beginning in 2015, before joining the Missouri State staff in 2023.
- McKenzie Vaughan (Sr., Bella Vista, Ark.) has put together another impressive season after missing all of 2024 with an arm injury. Vaughan's team-leading 13 home runs this year rank third and her 40 RBI rank sixth in a single season in program history. She also owns 10 victories in the circle with a team-leading 3.70 ERA. Vaughan became the program's all-time home run leader (32) on April 26 against Belmont, surpassing her former teammate Olivia Krehbiel who set the record last season.
- Alexis Perales (So., Grapevine, Texas) leads the Bears in MVC play this season with a .328 batting average and seven doubles. She threw out two runners in conference play and owned a .989 fielding percentage.
- Defensively, the Bears are second in the MVC this season and rank 78th nationally with 18 double plays. MoState also ranks third in The Valley in caught stealing by, throwing out 13 runners on the year. Individually, Emily Gerardy (So., Omaha, Neb.) committed just two erros in MVC play in 106 total chances for a .981 fielding percentage against MVC foes.
- Iowa Connections - Kasey Griffith is an Iowa native from down the road in Dallas Center, Iowa, and two current Bears hail from Iowa in Aubrey Johansen (Dallas Center) and Elle Nelsen (Grimes). All three played for Coach Griffith's dad, Steve Schlafke, in high school at Dallas Center-Grimes High.
- The Bears are 14-0 this season when holding opponents to two runs or less and are 12-1 when out-hitting opponents. MoState has had 17 games decided by two runs or less this season and owns a 6-11 record in those games. They have also had seven extra-inning games and are 2-5 in those contests.
- The 2025 MoState roster includes 12 returners, nine newcomers (seven freshmen, two transfers) and features 12 underclassmen. From last year's squad, the Bears had eight departures which included seven seniors.
MVC Tournament History
Missouri State owns a 77-51 (.602) record in the Gateway/Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, which is the most tournament wins by any school in the league. MoState also owns the most conference tournament titles in the MVC with seven crowns. The 2025 conference tournament will mark the final one for the Bears, as they will be in CUSA next season.
MoState enters the 2025 tournament as the No. 5 seed after owning a 16-11 conference record. Last season, the Bears made a run to the MVC Tournament semifinals as the No. 6 seed. They defeated 11th-seeded Indiana State, 4-3, in the first round and 3rd-seeded Belmont, 7-4, in the semifinals, before the Bears' run came to an end with a 2-1 loss to No. 2 seed UNI.
The Bears' last tournament championship victory came in 2022 when Missouri State hosted the tournament in Springfield. In that 2022 run, the Bears defeated Illinois State, 5-1, in the semifinals before knocking off the regular season champions Northern Iowa, 10-4, in the title game. MSU would go on to the Columbia Regional in 2022, where the Bears earned a 2-0 victory over Illinois and dropped a couple of two-run games to No. 15 national seed Missouri.
