The 25th-ranked Missouri State volleyball team downed Indiana State, 3-0, Friday in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Championship at Redbird Arena. With their 20th consecutive win, the Bears advanced to their third straight MVC Tournament final and ninth in the last 17 seasons, and will try for the school’s fifth championship against either second-seeded UNI or No. 3 Illinois State at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Bears (27-5), who earned the tournament’s top seed by going through the league slate undefeated at 18-0, overcame a slow start to down the Sycamores (11-21) by set scores of 26-24, 25-15, 25-16.
Three-time Valley Player of the Year Lily Johnson led the way for MSU with 14 kills, 13 digs and a pair of aces. Lynsey Wright tallied nine kills and three blocks, while Aubrey Cheffey had seven kills and a career-high six blocks. The Bears out-hit the Sycamores .324 to .148, and held an 8-5 edge in blocks, with MacKenzie Irwin adding four stuffs to go with five kills on six swings. Emily Butters added 13 digs to become the fourth player in MVC history with 700 in a season.
Coming off their first win ever in a Valley volleyball tournament, Indiana State came out swinging to start the match, building early leads of as much as six points. But the Bears steadied themselves and, after a timeout at 16-10, hit at a .533 clip the rest of the set with Johnson, Wright and Cheffey carrying the load.
MSU took control from the start in the second frame, scoring the first six points on Johnson’s serve as ISU never got closer than five points the rest of the set. The Bears shut down the Sycamores’ offense in the set, collecting four blocks and holding ISU to .000 hitting. Offensively, Johnson and Wright had five and three kills, respectively.
The Bears were efficient offensively again in the third, posting a .414 hitting percentage and jumping out to early leads of 4-1 and 6-2 and never looking back. Johnson posted four kills and Cambree Villarreal had three in the final set as MSU.
With their 27th victory, the Bears matched their win totals from the 2006, 2003 and 2000 seasons for the most in head coach Melissa Stokes‘s tenure. The last MSU team to win more than 27 matches was the 1982 club, which finished 35-15.
