Box Score EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Junior Megan Schmidt (Bloomington, Ill./Central Catholic) tallied a team-high 14 kills and hit .375, while freshman Lauren Zerante (Elmhurst, Ill./York) recorded 12 kills to help lead Bradley to a 25-21, 17-25, 25-22, 25-19 victory at Evansville Friday in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball action.
The Braves (6-19 overall, 1-11 MVC) took control of the opening set midway through the frame. BU held a 17-15 advantage when freshman Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan) sparked a 4-1 Bradley spurt with a kill. The Braves, which hit .394 in the first set, pushed the lead to as many as five points (24-19), before Zerante closed out the set with a kill. Angelos notched five of her 10 kills in the first set to help Bradley take the opening set.
Evansville (16-7 overall, 5-6 MVC) hit .441 in the second set and answered with a 25-17 win to even the match at one set each. Hannah Wilson and Kaisi Nixon each recorded four kills to pace the Purple Aces in the second set.
Bradley pulled out a tightly contested third set to take a two-sets-to one lead. Evansville led 19-16 after a Bradley attack error, before the Braves countered with a 7-2 victory to go in front 24-21. Angelos and junior Annie Cave (Easton, Ill./Illini Central) had back-to-back kills to open the rally and Angelos and Zerante capped the run with a block to give Bradley a 24-21 lead. Zerante followed an Evansville kill with one of her own to cap a 25-22 BU win.
The Braves never trailed in the fourth set and went to close out the match with a 25-19 win. Bradley opened the set with a 7-2 run and later extended the advantage to 12-4. Evansville pulled to with four points (20-16) before Schmidt and sophomore Madelyn Ervin (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy) each recorded a pair of kills to help Bradley seal the victory in four sets with a 25-19 win.
Schmidt paced the Braves with 14 kills to move in to 27th on BU's career kills list and enters Saturday's match at Southern Illinois needing one kill to reach 600 in her career. Zerante added 12 kills and Angelos finished with 10 kills and four blocks to lead the Braves. Junior Rachelle Dejean (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) had a match-high 23 digs to help Bradley to its first Missouri Valley Conference victory of the season.
Emily Wandersee led Evansville with a match-high 19 kills and Wilson also reached double figures in kills, finishing with 13 kills to go along with 17 digs. Katie Klages led UE with 18 digs and helped the Purple Aces to a 71-59 edge in digs in the loss.
Bradley returns to action Saturday in a 5 p.m. match at Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Ill.
