Normal, Ill. – Indiana State volleyball's season came to a close Friday night in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Championship as top-seeded and No. 25 Missouri State completed the sweep of the Sycamores (26-24, 25-15, 25-16) inside Redbird Arena.
 
"It goes by fast -- you can kind of think now about where we started and how we looked in the preseason," said head coach Lindsay Allman on her first season at Indiana State. "Us beating a very good Drake team and competing tonight against a really tough Missouri State team -- I'm proud of the showing we had and I'm looking forward to next year and these girls should be proud that people are going to start paying attention to Indiana State Volleyball."
 
A night after claiming the programs first win in the conference tournament, the Sycamores rode that momentum to an early lead over Missouri State, jumping out to a 9-5 Bears squad that had dominated nearly every opponent this season.
 
Freshman Nikkie White was the catalyst for the Trees early, with five kills and a block in the opening set. White and teammate Laura Gross helped ISU to a 16-10 lead at the midway point before a timeout by the Bears reel off four-straight points and close the gap to just two points at 16-14.
 
Both teams would battle all the way to 24 before Missouri State was able to come away with two points to rally back and win the set.
 
Missouri State (27-5) used that momentum to jump on top in the second set 7-1 early and never looking back as they took the set 25-15 to go into the locker room with a 2-0 lead.
 
It was much of the same in the third set as the Bears continued to attack and eventually pull away. The rest was academic.
 
White finished the match with a team high 12 kills on a .250 attacking percentage to go with three digs and a block while Laura Gross recorded her second consecutive double-double with a 10 kill - 15 dig performance.
 
Sarah Peterson finished with nine kills while Rachel Griffin had 35 assists and Stephanie Bindernagel had eight digs as the senior closed out their Sycamore careers.
 
MSU outhit the Sycamores .324 to .148 in the match. The Bears won the battle at the net with eight blocks while the Sycamores were held to five. Lily Johnson led all players with 14 kills in the match.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Volleyball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram