SPRINGFIELDÂ - Missouri State beach volleyball (23-4) is set to compete in its second Conference USA Championship from April 23-25 at Sugar Beach in Youngsville, Louisiana. The Bears are the No. 6 seed in the nine-team field and will open the tournament against No. 3 seed FIU (15-20) on Thursday at 11:30 a.m.
Tournament Breakdown
The CUSA Beach Volleyball Tournament follows a double-elimination format with teams moving from the "Winner's Bracket" to the "Contender's Bracket" following their first loss. All matches will be streamed on ESPN+. The championship match is set for Saturday, April 25 at 11:30 a.m.
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Missouri State is positioned in the upper half of the bracket and will face No. 3 FIU in its opening match. The winner will advance to take on the winner of No. 2 UAB and No. 7 UTEP, while the loser will continue play in the contender's bracket.
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The Bears share their side of the bracket with UAB, UTEP and FIU, while the opposite half features top-seeded Florida Atlantic, Tulane, USF, Tarleton State and Sam Houston.
Bears on the Beach
- Missouri State enters the postseason with a 23-4 overall record, the second-most wins in program history, trailing only the 2024 team that finished 26-7.
- Missouri State enters the postseason ranked fifth in Conference USA according to CollegeBeachVB.
- The Bears closed the regular season with wins over Southeastern Louisiana and Central Arkansas, including a 5-0 sweep of UCA.
- Against Conference USA opponents this season, Missouri State is 3-0 with a win over UTEP and two victories against Tarleton State.
- Manuela Niemeyer and MacKenzie Steele are tied for first in program history with 73 career wins.
- MacKenzie Steele and Amanda Cleary are 23-4 as a pair this season and hold the program record for wins by a duo with a 60-23 career mark. The pair also is ranked third among CUSA Flight 2 pairs by CollegeBeachVB.
Scouting the Sands
- Missouri State will face FIU in the opening round of the CUSA Championship for the second straight season and is 0-4 all-time against the Panthers.
- Missouri State went 2-2 in its first appearance at the CUSA Championship in 2024 before finishing 1-2 in last season's tournament. The Bears hold a 3-4 all-time record in conference tournament play.
- Florida Atlantic enters the championship as the lone nationally ranked team in the field, checking in at No. 19 in the latest AVCA poll, while UAB received 10 votes.
Head Coach Ashley Emery
- Ashley Emery is in her fourth season as head coach of Missouri State beach volleyball and enters the weekend with a 76-34 career record, the most wins by a coach in program history.
- Emery led the Bears to the best start in program history this season at 14-0, highlighted by four tournament sweeps.
- Emery spent the 2021 season as a volunteer assistant for the Missouri State indoor volleyball team after three seasons as an assistant at Drury University, where she helped the Panthers to the program's first regular season Great Lakes Valley Conference championship and their first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in 2018.
- She served as the interim volleyball head coach at Missouri S&T for the 2017 season following five years as a high school coach in Oklahoma, where she led the Broken Arrow varsity team to three state tournament appearances from 2014 to 2016.
- Emery guided Edison Prep in Tulsa to the school's first-ever state tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013. She was named the Green County Coach of the Year in 2013.
- A native of Osceola, Missouri, the former Ashley Jurgensmeyer played indoor volleyball at Southwest Baptist University, where she is still the all-time leader in kills (1,156), attack percentage (.303) and points (1,419).
- As a beach player, Emery competed on the Association of Volleyball Professionals semi-pro tour, AVPNext, from 2014-16 and earned an A-level ranking.
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