SPRINGFIELD, MO – Missouri State (17-1-0) claimed the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship and secured a trip to its third straight NCAA Tournament with a 3-0 victory over Evansville(4-14-2) Sunday at Betty and Bobby Allison South Stadium.
With today’s win, Missouri State captured the program’s second-straight MVC Tournament title and third overall.
Javier Martin Gil’s goal in the 29
th minute was his first of the season. Martin Gil became the 15
th different Bear to score a goal this season.
Jon Koka added to the Missouri State lead in the 39
th minute, scoring his sixth goal of the season on an assist from Greg Stratton, giving the top seed Bears a 2-0 halftime lead.
Missouri State struck again in the 53rd minute as Jesus Barea scored his fifth goal of the season on an assist from Josh Dolling, stretching the Bears' lead to 3-0.
Missouri State improved to 38-0-0 since the start of the 2019 season when scoring two or more goals in a match.
Sunday’s 3-0 title match score broke a string of 15-straight title matches being decided by 1 goal or fewer. The last time a title match was decided by 3 goals was in 1997 when Creighton beat Missouri State 4-1.
Since the 1991 season, the regular-season MVC champion has now won the MVC Tournament in the same season 16 times. Missouri State joins former league members Creighton and SMU as the only teams to accomplish this feat more than one time. The Jays were crowned both regular-season and tournament champions on eight different occasions, Missouri State has three, with SMU two.
Missouri State will enter the NCAA tournament riding a national-best 15-match win streak.
The Bears also enter the NCAA tournament with a .944 winning percentage, leading the nation. The Bears (17-1-0) are the only team in NCAA men’s soccer with 17 wins.
The NCAA will announce the men’s soccer tournament field of 48 at 12 PM (CT) on Monday, November 15 on NCAA.com. 24 of the 48 spots will be AQ’s with the final 24 teams being at-large selections. The teams will be seeded so that 16 of the 48 teams will receive a First Round bye and automatically advance to the Second Round.
MVC All-Tournament Team
Missouri State’s Michael Creek was named the 2021 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Tournament MVP, after leading the Bears to a 3-0 win over Evansville in the MVC Men's Soccer Tournament title and a 1-0 win over Bradley in the semifinals. Creek posted a pair of clean sheets in the tournament, notching his seventh and eighth shutouts on the season.
The 13-member All-Tournament team is listed below:
Juan Louis, Drake
Harvey Moyes, SIUE
Giann Magno, Loyola
Tyler Biggs, Loyola
Bryce Logan, Bradley
Michael Rogalski, Bradley
Jacob Madden, Evansville
Connor Langan, Missouri State
Ethan Garvey, Evansville
Josh Dolling, Missouri State
Nkosi Graham, Evansville
Kyle Hiebert, Missouri State
Michael Creek, Missouri State (MVP)
Elite 17 Winner
Kyle Hiebert, Missouri State (4.00 GPA in Accounting)