Exactly 11 years since it last accomplished the same feat, the Missouri State softball team stormed the field to celebrate a championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Missouri State rallied from an early deficit for a 10-4 win over top-seeded Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon at Killian Stadium in Springfield. It clinches the Bears their seventh NCAA appearance in program history.
"All year long, our mission has been 'Meraki,'" Holly Hesse, in her 34th year as head coach, said. "The definition of 'Meraki' is to leave something special behind.