SPRINGFIELD – Senior Azyah Green hit .524 with a season-high 13 kills Saturday at Hammons Student Center, but the visiting Murray State Racers emerged victorious over the Missouri State volleyball Bears by set scores of 25-19, 25-20, 17-25 and 25-18.
The Racers (11-5, 5-2 Missouri Valley Conference) had a combined 33 kills in the first two sets and pulled away from tie scores of 17 and 11, respectively, to claim a 2-0 lead in the match.
The MoState (9-10, 3-4) defense tallied six blocks in the third set, with three each from Green, Lindsay Lahr and Breanah Rives, while the offense hit .333 to keep the Bears in the match.
Murray State’s 5-0 run in the fourth set swung the lead into its favor for good at 16-14, as the visitors added 15 kills in the final set and owned a 61-50 match lead in that category while outhitting the Bears by a .218-.189 margin.
Rives went for 11 kills and 11 digs to record her eighth double-double of the season, while Maddy Bushnell and Deja Bickers had nine kills apiece.
Teagan Polcovich led four Bears in double figures in digs with 17, Lahr had a team-best five blocks, and Katie Wemhoener served two of Missouri State’s three aces.
Missouri State heads to Iowa next weekend for matches at UNI and Drake, the top two teams in the MVC preseason poll.
