On the Pitch
• The No. 23 Missouri State Bears face Penn State on the road on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1 at 3:00 p.m.
• The Bears are 1-1 on the season. MSU opened the season with a 4-1 win against Seattle. Senior
Fumiya Shiraishi scored all four stunning goals to tie the individual match school record, earning the American Conference Offensive Player of the Week award. In the Bears 2-1 loss to Kansas City Shiraishi also assisted in the goal scored by
Ollie Bate.
• This is the second meeting between the Bears and the Nittany Lions, the last being in 2001 where Penn State won 1-0.
• Missouri State has achieved three straight 12-win seasons under head coach
Michael Seabolt.
• Since the beginning of the 2019 season, Missouri State holds the best Division I overall record of 84-16-10 (.809), best conference record of 46-2-4 (.923) and sixth-best home record of 46-8-5 (.822). 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 is ranked No. 23 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll (Aug. 26) and has been ranked in at least one poll in eight consecutive seasons.
• MoState has ranked in the top eight nationally in shot accuracy each of the last two seasons. The Bears put 118 of 239 shots on target last season (.494), and ranked four in that category in 2023 (124-of-240; .517).
• Senior goalkeeper
Will 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's stifling defense allowed just 15 goals last season, tied for the ninth-fewest in the nation.
• 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 polls, 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 Conferences selections from a season ago, including first-team pick
Alex Matthews and second-team choices
James Jennings,
Fumiya Shiraishi and
Will Lowry.
