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Entering the final weekend of MVC regular-season play, just three league matches remain on the calendar, each with seeding implications for the 2019 MVC Men’s Soccer Championship, Nov. 13, 15 & 17 in Chicago, Illinois.

Missouri State, Valparaiso and Evansville have each officially earned their seed in the 2019 MVC Tournament. The top two seeds receive a first round bye. (Tournament Central). 

Below are the seed ranges for all six league teams heading into the final three matches.

Team                    Seed Range
Missouri State            1
Loyola                        2, 3, 4
Bradley                      2, 3, 4
Drake                         2, 3, 4
Valparaiso                   5
Evansville                    6

The final tourney seeding and bracket will be announced on Saturday, Nov. 9 following the conclusion of the Loyola at Valpo match. 

Bears Win Title Outright
The Bears clinched sole possession of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship, earning the eighth overall regular season title in program history.

Last Team Standing
Missouri State extended its winning streak to 15 games with Sunday’s win over Loyola. The Bears have opened their season with 15 straight wins for the first time in program history.   The winning streak ranks first nationally and sets a new program record.

Missouri State is the first MVC program to start a season 15-0-0 since SMU started the 2001 season 21-0-0 before suffering its only loss in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals to St. John’s.

The Bears are the only team still sitting perfect in all of NCAA Division I.  
 
Missouri State’s 15-0 start is the best start in NCAA history since the 2009 Akron team opened its season by going 23-0 (lost in national championship to Virginia) and is the longest in-season streak since the 2016 Maryland team won 15 consecutive games (No. 1 seed in NCAA Tourney).

Historical Win Streaks
Missouri State moved to 9-0-0 in Valley play, becoming just the second team in league history to go 9-0-0 in league play (SMU in 2001).  The streak is tied for the third longest league win streak in Valley history. A win Saturday at Drake would put the Bears into sole possession for the longest streak in league history and become the first team to go 10-0-0 in a season. 

Longest MVC Match Win Streaks (Valley History)
    1.     SMU (2001, 2004)    9
            Missouri State (2019)    9
    3.    SMU (2000)    8

Scoring Streak
Matthew Bentley of Missouri State extended his scoring streak to seven-straight matches with two goals, including the game-winner, at Valpo Wednesday and a goal vs. Loyola on Sunday. Bentley has scored 10 goals during the seven-match streak, with three multi-goal performances (most in MVC).  All 12 of his goals this season have come in Valley play. 

Road Winning Streak
Missouri State is sitting on an eight match road win streak entering Saturday’s match at Drake.  The streak is the second longest nationally behind St. Mary’s (CA) who has won 9-straight on the road.

Elite on Both Ends
The Bears rank 7th nationally with a GAA of .586 (9 goals allowed) and rank 9th in goals per game (2.40).  Missouri State is the only team in the nation to rank Top 10 nationally in both categories. 

NCAA Committee Rankings
With two weeks remaining before selection Monday, the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee announced its top 16 ranking on Friday, November 1.  The top 16 correspond to the number of teams that are seeded in the 48-team NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship bracket. Missouri State appeared at No. 12 in the initial ranking.

Polling
Missouri State continues to appear in the national rankings this week, sitting in the top 10 at No. 10 in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll, No. 13 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 25 and No. 12 in the College Soccer News Top 30 poll. 

Loyola is receiving votes in the TopDrawerSoccer.com and College Soccer News polls this week. 

They are the fourth team in program history to receive a top-10 ranking in the national poll, joining the 1999, 2000, and 2005 teams.

MSU’s highest ranking came in the 2000 season with a No. 3 spot in the Sept. 11 poll.

MVC in Regional Rankings
The MVC has three teams ranked in the latest United Soccer Coaches West Regional rankings released on Tuesday (Nov. 5).  Missouri State remained in the top spot in the region and sits No. 1, while Loyola (5th) and Drake (9th) also appear in the poll.

Solid Profile
Loyola is also pushing for an at-large berth into the NCAA field.  The Ramblers sit 38th in RPI and have played the 46th toughest schedule nationally.  All four Loyola losses are to Top 40 RPI teams and are all one goal losses. Until falling to Missouri State on Sunday, Loyola hadn’t lost a match since Sept. 22

This week's Missouri Valley Conference Players of the Week are Missouri State's Matthew Bentley and Valpo's Jorn-Jan van de Beld.

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Matthew Bentley, Sr., F, Missouri State
Matthew Bentley continued his reign as the Valley’s most dangerous attacker, increasing his current scoring streak to seven consecutive games.  Bentley recorded three of the Bears’ five goals this past week as MSU extended its perfect 2019 campaign with a pair of wins over Valparaiso and Loyola.  The senior forward posted his third two-goal performance this season in MSU’s 3-2 overtime thriller at Valpo on Wednesday, providing late-game heroics to notch the game winner.  It took all of 14 seconds for Bentley to continue his multi-game scoring stretch in the Bears’ 2-1 win over Loyola on Sunday as he rebounded a Stuart Wilkin shot to give him his 12th goal of the season.  In his first season as a Bear, Bentley leads the conference in goals (12) and total points (27) as 10 of his 12 goals have come during his current seven-game scoring barrage. 

Other Notable Performances: Fabian Becerra (LUC); Ryan Madondo (VALPO)

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Jorn-Jan van de Beld, Sr., GK, Valparaiso
Making just his fourth appearance and third start of the season, Jorn-Jan van de Beld saw action in a Missouri Valley Conference match for the first time on Sunday. His league debut was a successful one as he recorded Valpo’s first clean sheet of the season in a 1-0 road win over Evansville. It came exactly a year to the day of Valpo’s last shutout victory, which was a 1-0 triumph at Drake. Van de Beld picked up three saves in an all-around strong team defensive effort. 

Other Notable Performances: N/A