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The Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Championship will get underway when No. 4 Drake  takes on No. 5 Indiana State in the tournament opener on Thursday, Nov. 23, at 5:00 p.m., followed by host and No. 3 Illinois State vs. No. 6 Valparaiso at 7:30 p.m. The game one winner between DU/INS will take on No. 1 Missouri State on Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. in the first semifinal, while the ILS/VALPO winner will face No. 2 UNI in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. 

Semifinal winners will face off for the Missouri Valley Conference automatic berth into the NCAA Volleyball Championship on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 4:00 p.m.

All five matches of the 2017 MVC Volleyball Championship, including two quarterfinals on Thursday, two semifinals on Friday and the championship match on Saturday, will be available for fans to follow via live streaming on The Valley on ESPN3 (espn3.com). Greg Halbleib (play-by-play) and Linda Dollar (analyst) will call the matches live from Redbird Arena.

Tournament Titles
Since 1982, only three current league members have ever won the MVC Tournament title. In 35 seasons of Valley volleyball, UNI has claimed nearly half of all tourney titles, an amazing 16 tournament championships (.457), while Illinois State has captured 10 (.286). The only other team to ever win the league tournament is Missouri State (four, .114).

Last Time They Won
Of the three current league members to have won tournament championships since 1982, Illinois State is the most recent winner in 2014, while UNI won in three consecutive seasons from 2009-2011. Missouri State’s last tourney title came in 2008, while the last time the tournament was hosted in Normal, UNI took home the trophy (2006). Drake, Indiana State and Valparaiso have never won the MVC Tournament championship.

Runners-Up
Four of the six teams in the 2017 MVC Volleyball Tournament have finished as the runner-up, with the most coming from Missouri State (13). The Panthers have come up short in six title matches, while the Redbirds have been the runner-up four times. Drake has three second-place finishes. The only other current league team to finish second in the tournament is Southern Illinois (three times).

Winning!
Below are the all-time tournament wins for the six teams vying for the 2017 MVC Volleyball Tournament title:

All-Time Tournament Wins
43     UNI
38    Illinois State
33    Missouri State
4     Drake
1    Indiana State
0    Valparaiso

By the Numbers
Below are the all-time tournament title wins for the six teams vying for the 2017 MVC Volleyball Tournament title:

MVC Tournament Titles Won
16    UNI
10    Illinois State
4    Missouri State

Finalists Advance to NCAAs
The MVC has earned 28 NCAA Tournament bids in the past 10 seasons. Notably, except for in two seasons (2013 and 2014), every team to reach the MVC Tournament final has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in that time span.

Top Two Seeds in Finals
The top two seeds have both advanced to the finals four times since 2002 (2003, 2005, 2014 and 2016), with the top seed beating the second seed in the final only in 2014.

Tournament Resumes
Below are the tournament resumes for the six teams vying for the 2017 MVC Volleyball Tournament title:

Missouri State (No. 1 seed)
33-29 (.532) overall record
18th-straight tournament  appearance (32nd overall)
0-0 vs. Drake in MVC Tournament (potential semifinal opponent)
3-0 vs. Indiana State in MVC Tournament (potential semifinal opponent)
Four tournament titles (1990, 1993, 2005, 2008)
13 tournament runner-up finishes (last in 2016)

UNI (No. 2 seed)
43-20 (.683) overall record
33rd-straight tournament  appearance (34th overall)
11-3 vs. Illinois State in MVC Tournament (potential semifinal opponent)
0-0 vs. Valparaiso in MVC Tournament (potential semifinal opponent)
16 tournament titles (last in 2011)
Six tournament runner-up finishes (last in 2014)

Illinois State (No. 3 seed)
38-25 (.603) overall record
Has appeared in 35 of 36 tournaments (except 2009)
0-0 vs. Valparaiso in MVC Tournament (quarterfinal opponent)
10 tournament titles (last in 2014)
Four tournament runner-up finishes (1998, 1999, 2000, 2007)

Drake (No. 4 seed)
4-8 (.333) overall record
10th MVC Tournament Appearance and first since 2010
0-0 vs. Indiana State in MVC Tournament (quarterfinal opponent)
Last tournament win was 3-0 win over Wichita State in 1998

Indiana State (No. 5 seed)
1-9 (.100) overall record
10th MVC Tournament Appearance and first since 2014
0-0 vs. Drake in MVC Tournament (quarterfinal opponent)
Only tournament win is a vacated win over UNI from 1982

Valparaiso (No. 6 seed)
First-ever MVC Tournament appearance

Best MVC Records
Since the start of the Missouri Valley Conference in the 1992 season, 11 league team has gone through MVC play unscathed. UNI has accomplished a perfect MVC season seven times, Wichita State twice  and Illinois State  and Missouri State once.  On eight of the 10 previous occasions, that team went on to win the MVC Tournament. 

Record Team       Year    MVC  Tourney 
20-0    UNI      1995     Champs
18-0    UNI       1998     Champs
18-0    UNI       1999     Champs
18-0    UNI       2000     Champs
18-0    Wichita State       2005     Runner Up
18-0    Wichita State       2008    Semis
18-0    UNI    2009    Champs
18-0    UNI    2010    Champs
18-0    UNI    2011    Champs
18-0    Illinois State    2014    Champs
18-0    Missouri State    2017    ??

Bears Keep On Streaking
Missouri State completed its first unbeaten MVC season last week, winning at Valparaiso and Loyola to finish 18-0. MSU’s overall win streak of 19 consecutive matches is the third-longest in school history and longest since the record of 30 straight victories was set in 1975. 

Senior CLASS Award Finalists
Illinois State’s Jaelyn Keene and Missouri State’s Lily Johnson have been named finalists for the 2017 Senior CLASS Award. Keene and Johnson are among 10 NCAA Division I candidates in volleyball for the award which recognizes notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition.

Academic All-District Honors
Four MVC players were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams, including Illinois State’s Jaelyn Keene, Missouri State’s Lily Johnson and Brianne Dixon and Valparaiso’s Allison Ketcham. Keene, Johnson and Dixon were all first-team selections, while Ketcham earned second-team honors. First-team all-district selections will automatically be on the CoSIDA Academic All-America ballot. CoSIDA will announced its first-, second- and third-team Academic All-America selections on December 11.

League Leaders
Missouri State’s 18-0 league record matches three others who have 18 or more consecutive league wins in 2017. Seven NCAA teams are still unbeaten in their respective leagues (through Nov. 19).

NCAA Teams With Perfect League Marks
21-0    Alabama St.
20-0    Fairfield
18-0    Missouri St., Wichita St.
16-0    Cal Poly, VCU
14-0    Texas

Road Dominance
Missouri State continues to hold the longest road win streak in the NCAA, sitting at 22-straight. The next longest road streak in the NCAA is BYU with 13-straight road wins.  

NCAA RPI Report
The last NCAA RPI report for the 2017 season has been released (Nov. 20) and the Valley has three teams featured in the top-100. Missouri State leads the league at No. 44, while UNI sits No. 48 and Illinois State 95 this week.

Two In Top 50
The MVC is one of nine conferences and one of four non-Power Five leagues to have multiple teams appearing in the latest Top 50 of the NCAA RPI.  The Valley joins the Big East, Big West and West Coast in the club.  

AVCA Top-25
Missouri State remained No. 25 in the latest AVCA Top 25 poll (Nov. 20).  This is the fifth time the Bears have been in the Top 25. Before last week, the last appearance for the Bears came on Dec. 1, 2003.

This week's Missouri Valley Conference Players of the Week are Bradley's Erica Haslag, Missouri State's Emily Butters and Valparaiso's Brittany Anderson.

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Erica Haslag, Jr., OH, Bradley
Haslag averaged an impressive 6.33 kills, 4.17 digs and 6.50 points per set in the final two matches of the season for Bradley while boasting a .302 attack percentage.  In Friday’s sweep of Evansville, she posted a school record for kills in a three-set match under the 25-point set format as she finished with 20 kills and 10 digs.  She hit .314 the next night against Indiana State, finishing with 18 kills, 15 digs and one ace for her 18th double-double of the year.  Haslag finished the season with 530 kills, giving her the second-best season kill total in school history behind Lindsay Stalzer’s MVC season record 720 kills set in 2005.     

Other Notable Performances: Jaelyn Keene (ILS); Sarah Peterson (INS); Gabi Maciagowski (LUC); Lynsey Wright (MSU); Karlie Taylor (UNI)

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Emily Butters, Jr., L, Missouri State 
Emily Butters tallied 50 digs in just seven sets last week, averaging 7.14 per set while helping the MSU defense limit opponents to .096 hitting in two road wins. Friday, the junior scooped 23 digs and had seven assists in a sweep of Valparaiso. Saturday, Butters set MSU’s single-season digs record during the first set at Loyola, finishing with 27 in the match along with six assists and an ace as the Bears completed an 18-0 MVC season. 

Other Notable Performances: Yavianliz Rosado (BRAD); Courtney Pence (ILS); Maddy Moser (LUC); Rylee Cookerly (VALPO)

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Brittany Anderson, Fr., S, Valparaiso
Valparaiso freshman setter Brittany Anderson averaged 11.67 assists/set in the final weekend of the regular season for the Crusaders. She handed out 32 assists against Missouri State on Friday and then registered 38 assists in the win over Southern Illinois on Saturday. Anderson led the Crusader offense on Saturday as it hit at a .306 clip in the sweep, the team’s best single-match performance of the season. 

Other Notable Performances: Sydney Holt (ILS); Elle Van Grinsven (LUC)