The Missouri State volleyball team earned at least a share of its second consecutive Missouri Valley Conference championship Saturday afternoon with a 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 sweep of UNI in front of a season-high 1,858 fans at Hammons Student Center.
The Bears (23-5, 15-0) matched their best MVC start in school history, winning their 16th consecutive match overall and 31st straight in the league to move three games clear of UNI (23-7, 13-3) and Drake (23-6, 12-3) in the standings with three to play. MSU hosts Drake at 2 p.m. Sunday for Senior Day.
The opening period set the tone for a match that was tightly-contested throughout, with nine ties on the way to a 21-21 score, with the largest lead for either side being a 17-13 MSU advantage. MacKenzie Irwin broke the tie with a kill and a UNI error made it 23-21 Bears, which was enough cushion for the MSU to side out for the win.
Missouri State bolted to a 10-5 lead in the second set on a Lynsey Wright kill, but a pair of 5-0 runs by the visitors flipped the score to 15-12 UNI. The Panthers pushed the margin to 20-15 before the Bears countered with two blocks on either side of an Emily Butters ace for 20-18, and Lily Johnson later fired a kill from the back row for a 22-21 MSU lead. The set ended identical to the first, with a UNI error making it 23-21 and side outs to the two-point MSU win.
The Bears got off to another fast start in the third, lead 9-4 on a Johnson ace before the Panthers battled back for a 20-18 lead. MSU responded with a 5-0 run on two kills, two errors and block to lead 23-20, and a block by Wright and Aubrey Cheffey put the finishing touch on the sweep.
Johnson led all players with 14 kills and Wright added 10, and the Bears hit .217 as a team compared to .149 for UNI, overcoming deficits of 48-41 in kills and 79-63 in digs. Butters had 24 digs, and Cheffey added a career-high six blocks.
Several Bears moved up MSU, MVC and NCAA statistical lists during the match. Johnson climbed to 34th in NCAA history in career kills, and joined MSU’s single-season top 10 for kills for the fourth time in her career. She also became the 15th player in NCAA history to play in 500 consecutive sets. Wright moved past Mary Beck for eighth in school history in career kills, and Butters became the fourth player in school history with 600 digs in a season.
