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After winning both the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships, the 25th-ranked Missouri State volleyball team found out its NCAA Tournament destination Sunday evening as the MVC’s automatic qualifier, and will begin tournament play against Michigan State on Friday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. in Omaha, Neb.
Missouri State’s 10th NCAA trip in the last 15 seasons and 13th overall includes No. 9 national seed Creighton and Coastal Carolina in the other half of the four-team regional. The winners will play on Dec. 2 at 6 p.m., and the champion of the four-team sub-regional advances to the third and fourth rounds Dec. 8-9 at a site to be determined.
The Bears are 28-5 overall and have won 21 consecutive matches, the third-longest streak in school history and longest since 1975. Missouri State boasts the MVC Player of the Year in Lily Johnson, the Libero of the Year in Emily Butters, and the Coach of the Year in Melissa Stokes. Johnson, Butters, Aubrey Cheffey and Lynsey Wright earned first-team all-MVC honors, and Daniele Messa is a second-team all-MVC selection.
MSU is 1-12 all-time in the tournament, with appearances in 1982, 1990, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016. Missouri State lost to Ohio State in Manhattan, Kan., last season, and defeated Arkansas in 2006 for its only tournament victory.
Michigan State is 21-8 overall and finished fourth in the Big Ten with a 14-6 conference record. The Spartans had an RPI of 17 and were ranked 10th in the most recent AVCA Coaches Poll. Creighton is the No. 9 national seed and owns a 25-6 overall record as the Big EAST regular season and tournament champion. Coastal Carolina was rated 74th in the latest RPI and won the Sun Belt regular season and tournament titles.
Missouri State is 5-1 all-time against Michigan State, losing in East Lansing in 2007 in the only meeting since 1987. The Bears owns a 30-9 series lead versus Creighton, and have not played since the Bluejays left the MVC following the 2012 season. Missouri has played Coastal Carolina once, a 3-0 MSU win in Columbia, S.C., in 1998.
Also in the NCAA Tournament from the Missouri Valley Conference is UNI.
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