Missouri State

Fort Hays State fell to 0-3 overall and 0-3 in the MIAA with a 48-10 loss at No. 13 Northwest Missouri State on Saturday. The Tigers produced their first points of the first quarter this season, pulling to within four at 7-3 early in the game, but the Bearcats scored 41 unanswered points before the Tigers scored their only touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter. The Tigers showed life early by driving the ball inside the Northwest Missouri 10-yardline following a touchdown drive by the Bearcats.

Tennessee has hired Missouri State's Cuonzo Martin to take over a Volunteers program facing punishment by the NCAA for recruiting violations. The 39-year-old Martin takes over for the popular Bruce Pearl, who was fired March 21, a month after being charged with unethical conduct for lying to NCAA investigators. Martin went 61-41 in three seasons at Missouri State and was chosen this season's Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year. Missouri State finished 26-9 and won the MVC regular-season championship.

Elizabeth Field had 12 kills and Ashley Andrade added 11 as Wichita State swept Missouri State (25-22, 25-12, 25-22) in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference volleyball tournament on Thursday night. This is the third time that Wichita State defeated Missouri State in the 2012 season.  The Shockers advance to play Northern Iowa in the semi-finals on Friday night at 7:30.  The winner of the Valley tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin has been picked as the Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year after leading his school to its first league title. The 39-year-old Martin received 27 of a possible 40 first-place votes from coaches, media and sports information directors in balloting announced Thursday. Greg Lansing of Indiana was second and Gregg Marshall of Wichita State was third. The Bears were 23-7 entering the conference tournament and 15-3 in conference play, the most league victories in school history.

The best road record in the Missouri Valley Conference and the highest RPI of any of the Valley teams, the Shockers have earned that top spot in the conference. But all they had to do to earn it was watch TV as Evansville beat Missouri State Wednesday night, breaking the tie between the Bears and the Shockers atop the standings. Wichita State (19-4, 10-2 MVC) were tied on with Missouri State on Sunday after their loss to Northern Iowa, but now that they have lost two in a row, the top is all for WSU. UNI and MSU are tied for second with 9-3 records.

The Wichita State baseball team fell, 7-2, in the second game of a three-game set to the Missouri State Bears on Saturday afternoon at Eck Stadium. Tobin Mateychick took his first loss of the season for the Shockers, pitching 3.1 innings, allowing five runs on five hits, and striking out one. Dayne Parker went 1-for-4 at the plate with an RBI. The Shockers got the first run of the game on a groundout by Casey Gillaspie that scored Don Lambert. In the next at-bat, Dayne Parker hit a single to right field to score Johnny Coy and put the Shocks up 2-0 after the first inning.

Illinois State is the 2013 MVC Women's Golf Champion. The title marks their fifth in six seasons and 13th overall. Illinois State's three-round 333-317-327=977 edged Wichita State, which shot a three-round 980. Southern Illinois (982) and Bradley (982) tied for third place, while Missouri State was right behind at 984. It marked the second year in a row that the top five teams were within eight strokes of each other at the end of the tournament. Redbird Katie Jean won medalist honors for the second consecutive year.

The Missouri Valley Conference announced postseason awards on Tuesday, and Wichita State figured prominently in the announements. Cleanthony Early was named Newcomer of the Year for the Shockers. Early was also named to the First Team. Carl Hall was named to the Second Team, and Malcolm Armstead was named Honorable Mention. In an announcement that surprised no one, Doug McDermott of Creighton was named Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. Armstead & Early were both named to the All-Newcomer Team.

Wichita State (19-5, 8-4) looks to end a 3-game losing streak when they host Missouri State (7-17, 5-7) on Saturday night at Koch Arena. Missouri State is hoping to end a streak of its own against Wichita State:  Gregg Marshall is the only Missouri Valley coach that Bears' head coach Paul Lusk has yet to beat in his first 30 league games. The Bears have performed well inside Koch Arena lately, with two of their last three losses coming by 1 and 2 points.  Overall, however, Missouri State is 6-20 in Wichita and the Shockers have won the last three straight in the series between the teams.

The FHSU football team saw its losing streak grow to three games on Saturday at the hands of the No. 1 nationally ranked Bearcats of Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo. The Bearcats took a 42-10 halftime lead and never looked back, rolling to a 70-17 win over FHSU. Fort Hays State fell to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the MIAA with the loss. Northwest Missouri State remained perfect at 4-0 and 3-0 in the MIAA. With the win, Northwest Missouri State pushed its conference-record winning streak to 49 games.