| Missouri State at Saluki Invitational | |
| Location | Carbondale, Ill. |
| Site | Davies Gym |
| at Southern Illinois | Thursday, Sept. 19, 4 p.m. ESPN+ | Live Stats |
| vs. SEMO | Friday, Sept. 20, 12 p.m. Live Stats |
| vs. SIUE | Saturday, Sept. 21, 12 p.m. Live Stats |
| Missouri State | Game Notes Volleyball Home Page |
| Southern Illinois | Volleyball Home Page |
| SEMO | Volleyball Home Page |
| SIUE | Volleyball Home Page |
Storylines for the Week
1) Missouri State (5-5) heads to the Saluki Invitational this weekend to take on Southern Illinois at 4 p.m. Thursday, SEMO at noon Friday and SIUE at 12 p.m. Saturday.
The Bears begin their final Missouri Valley Conference season against the Salukis on Thursday and are 19-13 in MVC openers with a .662 all-time winning percentage in the league.
2) MSU holds a 60-25 lead over Southern Illinois and is 25-12 against the Salukis in Carbondale. SIU has won the last four meetings overall.
The MoState-SIU coaching matchup features a combined 1,362 victories on the sideline, with MSU’s Steven McRoberts ranking 10th among active Division I coaches with 649 victories, and SIU’s Ed Allen ranking seventh with 713 wins. McRoberts, who succeeded Allen as head coach at Tulsa in 2011, owns an 12-5 record in head-to-head meetings – 1-0 against Tulsa as Central Arkansas’ head coach, 7-1 versus Alabama while coaching Ole Miss, and 4-4 in Missouri State/SIU match-ups.
The Bears are 19-2 against SEMO and 2-0 versus SIUE.
3) Missouri State is in the top six nationally in four statistical categories. The Bears rank second in total digs (741), third in dig average (19.00), fifth in total assists (493) and sixth in total kills (.530).
4) MSU has three senior starters from the same recruiting class – Maddy Bushnell, Kate Owen and Morgan Sprague – who have already stamped their names on the record book.
Bushnell set MSU’s freshman record with a .343 hitting percentage in 2021, and currently ranks 12th in school history with a .282 attack efficiency for her career.
Owen ranks 17th at MSU with 1,174 career digs, while her 40 aces in 2023 were the third-most by a Bear in the 25-point scoring era (since 2008).
Sprague passed 3,000 career assists in the second match of the year and sits third in MSU history in that category with 3,334. She ranks 26th with 1,013 digs as one of three Bears with 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs in a career. Sprague is third nationally in total assists in 2024.
5) A pair of freshman outside hitters have made an immediate impact for the Bears.
Aniya Joseph won MVC Freshman of the Week in each of the first two weeks of the year, and became the sixth player in league history to claim that award and Player of the Week in the same week on Sept. 9. She reached 100 kills in MSU’s seventh match of the year, the quickest for a freshman in school history. Lily Johnson reached 100 in her eighth match. Joseph is also the only MSU freshman on record (since 1987) to debut with a 20-kill match.
Rilynn Finley, meanwhile, is the only Bears freshman on record to begin a career with three consecutive double-figure kill matches. Joseph (3rd – 4.14) and Finley (8th – 3.73) both rank among the top eight freshmen nationally in kill average.
6) MSU has ranked in the top 32 nationally in total digs in three of the last four seasons, finishing 10th in 2020-21, 11th in 2023 and 32nd in 2022. So far in 2024, the Bears rank second in the nation with 741 total digs and third with an 19.00 per set average.
7) MoState has notched the top four ace averages since the 25-point scoring era began in the last four seasons, with at least 1.38 per set in each season under Coach McRoberts.
The Bears have served double-digit ace totals 19 times in the last four seasons.
8) Head coach Steven McRoberts is in his fifth season in Springfield and 28th overall as a head coach with 649 victories to his credit, good for 10th among active Division I coaches.
