Win Streak Snapped At Three
Bradley opened play at last week's Northern Illinois Invitational with a five-set victory against Fairfield, before having Towson snap the Braves three-match win streak later that same day. BU's three-match win streak was the longest since winning three consecutive matches in September of 2006 and the Braves ended a nine-match losing streak in neutral site matches with the victory against Fairfield. The win was Bradley's second five-set win of the season, marking the first time BU has won two or more five-set matches in the same year since the 2005 season. The Braves also posted their third consecutive win against a team which won 20 or more matches last season and matched the team's win total from the 2007 campaign.
This Week
Bradley returns home for a brief two-match homestand, when the Braves face Creighton (Friday) and Drake (Saturday) at Illinois Central College. The Bluejays were picked third in the preseason Valley poll and are 3-4 on the season with two losses coming at the hands of teams ranked in the top 25. Creighton, which had last week's matches cancelled due to Hurricane Ike, holds a 15-13 lead in the all-time series and has won each of the last five meetings. Drake is off to an 8-3 start to the year, after being picked eighth in the preseason Valley poll. Bradley holds a 24-21 lead in the all-time series and has won 15 of the last 18 meetings, but the Bulldogs ended a 12-match BU winning streak in the series by beating the Braves twice last year.
Conference Openers
Bradley will be opening its 26th season of conference play Friday when Creighton visits Lorene Ramsey Gym for both squads Missouri Valley Conference opener. The Braves are 15-10 all-time in conference openers, but have dropped back-to-back Valley openers. BU is 8-4 when opening league play at home, but has opened Valley play at home just once in the last four years and hasn't won a league opener at home since the 2003 season. Bradley has opened MVC play against Creighton twice (1994 & 2005) and has claimed victory both times the two opened conference play against each other.
Cave Named To All-Tournament Team
Freshman Annie Cave was named to the all-tournament team at the Northern Illinois Invitational last week. She entered the weekend with 19 kills on the season, but averaged 2.33 kills per set in three matches and posted 19 kills in the Braves final two matches of the tournament. Against Loyola Cave had a team-best nine kills and attacked at a .500 clip. She followed it up with a 10-kill performance against tournament-host Northern Illinois in which she hit .450. Cave hit a team-best .383 for the week.
Reichel's Streak Come To An End
Junior Amy Reichel has a team-best 107 kills on the season and is the Braves leader with a 2.97 kills per set average. After collecting just four kills in Bradley's season-opening loss to Gonzaga, she had reached double figures in kills in seven consecutive matches before posting just four kills Saturday against Loyola. Reichel entered the season with seven career double-digit kill efforts in her first two years on The Hilltop and joins Nikki Pierzchala as the only Bradley players to have seven consecutive matches with 10 or more kills since Lindsay Stalzer closed out the 2005 season with 15 consecutive matches with 10 or more kills.
Freshmen Duo Leading Team
Freshmen Meghan Schmidt and Rachelle Dejean are leading the Braves in blocks and digs, respectively, after three weeks of play. Schmidt is averaging 0.97 blocks per set and has 10 more blocks than any other player on the roster. If she can hold onto the lead in blocks it would mark the second consecutive year and third time in the last four seasons a freshman led the Braves in blocks. Dejean is averaging a team-best 3.11 digs per set on the young season and is looking to become the first freshman to lead Bradley in digs since Cindy Novak in 1992.
Black Moves Up Two Spots On Assist List
Senior setter Sam Black moved up two spots on Bradley's career assist chart, taking over seventh place at BU. She enters this week's action with 2,138 career assists after passing Trish Jording (2,081 assists) and Julie Penn (2,107 assists) last week. Black is currently 296 assists behind Sharon Zaba (2,434) for sixth place all-time. She already has a career-best 34 kills and needs 13 kills and 143 digs to become one of six players in program history with 100 kills, 2,000 assists, 50 aces, 800 digs and 50 blocks in a career.
Career Assist Leaders
# Name Years Ast. MP
1. Michelle Pack 1992-95 4,251 110
2. Sam Hardwick 1998-2001 3,828 112
3. Ashley Vance 2002-05 3,721 117
4. Wendy Carney 1986-89 2,937 137
5. Amelie Rodrigue 1999-2002 2,546 116
6. Sharon Zaba 1982-85 2,434 123
7. Sam Black 2005- 2,138 91
8. Julie Penn 1987-90 2,107 128
9. Trish Jording 1994-97 2,081 97
10. Carrie Brigman 1984-85 1,714 65
Braves End Several Streaks
In addition to picking up the first win of the 2008 season, Bradley ended several streaks with its five-set victory against SIU-Edwardsville on Sept. 5. The Braves ended a nine-match losing streak which dated back to last season. BU also snapped a five-match losing streak in five-set matches which dated back to a five-set win against Western Illinois on Sept. 1, 2006. The win also broke a streak of six consecutive losses to in-state opponents.
Reichel Earns All-Tourney Honors
Junior Amy Reichel was voted to the all-tournament team at the Wingate by Wyndham Invitational over the weekend after helping Bradley to a 2-1 record and second-place finish. Reichel averaged 3.58 kills and 0.42 aces per set in the three matches. She matched her career-high with 16 kills in a four-set loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and tallied a career-best 17 kills to go along with three aces in BU's five-set win against SIU-Edwardsville. She recorded 10 kills in a three-set win against Eastern Michigan as she reached double figures in kills for a career-best fifth consecutive match.
Land of Lincoln Tour
Bradley opened the season traveling over 3,200 miles round trip to Missoula, Mont., to take part in the Montana Invitational. The Braves will have plenty of time for home cooking after the long season-opening trip, as Bradley is in the middle of 10 consecutive matches and 13 of the next 14 overall in the state of Illinois. BU's only trip outside of the Land of Lincoln between the season-opening trip to Montana and the Oct. 11 contest at Northern Iowa will be a Sept. 26th tilt at Indiana State. The Braves have played seven consecutive matches in the state of Illinois and conclude the long stretch of in-state contests with home matches against Creighton (Sept. 19) and Drake (Sept. 20) in addition to a road match at Western Illinois (Sept. 23).
Tough Slate
First-year Bradley head coach Sean Burdette and his young Braves will have their hands full during the 2008 season. Bradley will play 15 of 32 matches against teams which won 20 or more matches last season and have a total of nine matches against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2007. The Braves are currently 3-1 against teams which won 20 or more matches last year. Bradley plays 11 matches against teams that finished ranked in the top 56 of the RPI.
What's Back
The Braves return eight of 12 letterwinners from last year's team, including five of the top seven attackers. Bradley did graduate its top two attackers in Nikki Pierzchala and Jenna Harrison (495 combined kills in 2007) and setter Eileen Hillary (344 assists), but bring back nearly 61 percent of the team's kills, 73 percent of the team's digs, 73 percent of the blocks, 85 percent of the aces and almost 71 percent of the team's aces from 2007.
New Look
Bradley will have a new look when the Braves take the court for the first time in 2008. Not only is there a change in offense, switching to a ?5-1' offensive set compared to the ?6-2' set that has been utilized the last few years, but the biggest change might be on the bench. Sean Burdette is the seventh coach in program history and joins the Braves after a five-year stint as an assistant coach at Ohio State. Four of the previous six head coaches in program history won their first match as head coach of the Braves. Senior setter Sam Black will take over the primary setting duties after splitting time at setter each of her first three seasons.
Home Is Where You Hang Your Hat
Bradley will be without a true home court during the 2008 season, splitting its home matches between Illinois Central College and the soon-to-be completed Markin Family Student Recreation Center on Bradley's campus. Due to construction of a new Athletics Facility which is currently underway, the Braves will play the first 10 of a scheduled 13 home matches at Lorene Ramsey Gym on Illinois Central College's East Peoria, Ill., campus. The new Athletics Facility is not scheduled for completion until the 2009-10 school year, but the Markin Family Student Recreation Center (a multi-purpose recreational facility) will open in October 2008 and serve as site for the final three home matches of the season. The Braves are currently 2-1 at Illinois Central College, having already matched last season's home win total (2-12 at home in 2007).
Braves Picked Ninth In MVC Poll
Bradley was picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference, according to a vote of league coaches. The Braves finished ninth in the final 2007 standings. Wichita State is the preseason favorite, receiving four first-place votes. Bradley received 25 points and was just nine points behind Evansville for seventh place.
2008 Preseason Coaches' Poll
Team Total
Wichita State (4) 91
Northern Iowa (2) 84
Creighton (3) 81
Missouri State (1) 73
Illinois State 67
Southern Illinois 52
Evansville 34
Drake 31
Bradley 25
Indiana State 12
Volleyball Blog
Juniors Kaitlyn Comiskey and Lyndi Senkpiel will be blogging on the Bradley Athletics website
(www.bradleybraves.com) throughout the 2008 season. The duo started blogging the first week of practice and will continue to do so until the end of the year.
Up Next
Bradley will step out of Missouri Valley Conference play for a Tuesday night road tilt at in-state foe Western Illinois. The Braves hold a 22-17 lead in the all-time series with the Westerwinds and have won nine consecutive meetings between the two programs. BU has won 12 of the last 13 meetings overall.
Rules Changes
There are several rule changes that will take effect for the 2008 season. Instead of playing a best of five “games” in a match, teams will now play a best of five “sets” to constitute a match. The most notable change will be shortening of those sets to 25 points, instead of the 30-point set which has been in place since collegiate volleyball moved to rally scoring in 2001. The number of points required to win the deciding fifth game will remain at 15. The other significant change is the reduction of substitutions in a set from 15 to 12.
