SPRINGFIELD — The Missouri State volleyball team extended its conference winning streak to 20 consecutive matches Friday evening with a 25-14, 25-19, 25-10 sweep of visiting Indiana State at Hammons Student Center.
The Bears (12-5, 4-0 Missouri Valley Conference) won their fifth straight match overall while handing the Sycamores (4-11, 2-1) their first MVC loss.
A week after becoming the MVC’s career kills leader, senior Lily Johnson scored her 2,000th career kill with the next-to-last point of second set, while junior Emily Butters became the fifth player in school history with 1,500 career digs during the final rally of the first period. Both players finished the match with 20 digs.
The first set included six ties four and early lead changes, the last of which came on a Brianne Dixon ace during a 6-0 MSU run that made the score 12-7. The Sycamores got as close as 16-13 when the Bears countered with a 7-0 run to open up a double-digit lead on the way to ending the set with 23 digs and four blocks to hold ISU to .000 hitting.
Two kills from Johnson and another by MacKenzie Irwin made up a 3-0 run for a 10-7 lead in the second set, and the Bears never trailed after that despite ISU closing within one point on two occasions. MSU answered the second Sycamore charge with a 4-0 run for an 18-13 lead, and Johnson finished the set with seven kills.
After falling behind 5-3 in the third period, the Bears closed on a 22-5 run, hitting .394 and limiting the Sycamores to a .028 efficiency in the set and .058 in the match.
Missouri State hit .299 overall and owned leads of 45-26 in kills, 67-57 in digs and 4-1 in service aces. Johnson led all players with 11 kills while Aubrey Cheffey hit .500 and Lynsey Wright hit .348 with both players scoring 10 kills. Brianne Dixon added 10 digs, Emelie Orlando (19) and Daniele Messa (18) split the assists nearly down the middle, and Cambree Villarreal earned a pair of solo blocks as one of four Bears with two stuffs.
MSU hosts Evansville (6-8, 0-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday.
