Bradley Wraps Up Five-Match Homestand With Loss To Northern Illinois
 Bradley closed out its longest homestand of the season with a three-set loss to Northern Illinois Tuesday at the Markin Family Student Recreation Center.  Freshman Alise Tupuritis led the Braves in kills for the fourth time in five matches, finishing with a team-best 10 kills.  Northern Illinois hit .393 as a team and boasted a 48-31 edge in digs.

Radford Tournament
 After opening the 2009 season with five home matches, Bradley will hit the road for the first time when the Braves travel to Radford, Va., for the Radford Invitational Friday and Saturday.  Bradley opens tournament play Friday at 2 p.m. (CDT) against South Carolina State and will wrap up the first day of play against Western Carolina (6 p.m. CDT).  The Braves also face Coppin State on Saturday (10 a.m.) and tournament-host Radford (5:30 p.m.) on Saturday.  Bradley will be facing South Carolina State, Western Carolina, Coppin State and Radford each for the first time in program history.

Megan Schmidt Named Scholar-Athlete of the Week
 Sophomore Megan Schmidt was named the Bradley Country Financial Scholar-Athlete of the Week for the week of Sept. 1 after helping Bradley to a second-place finish (3-1) at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational and getting named to the all-tournament team.  Schmidt averaged 2.23 kills per set while attacking at .435 clip and also averaged 1.23 blocks per set as she helped the Braves to their best four-match start to a season since opening the 2000 season with a 4-0 record.  In the season opener, Schmidt had six kills on just eight swings (.625) and also added four block assists in a four-set victory against South Carolina-Upstate after sitting out the first two sets of the match.  She collected a match-high 10 kills on her first 10 swings against Chicago State and finished with a .769 attack percentage (10-0-13) to go along with three block assists against the Cougars.  Schmidt had five kills, one ace, seven digs and two block assists in a four-set win against Lehigh and wrapped up the weekend with eight kills (.364 attack percentage), and seven blocks against IUPUI.

Braves Take Second At Home Tournament
 Bradley finished second in its own tournament, going 3-1 at the season-opening Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational.  The Braves, which opened a season at home for the first time since 2000, are off to their best start since beginning the 2000 campaign with a 4-0 record.  The 2000 season was also the last time Bradley opened a season at home.  The Braves have nine previous starts of 3-1 or better to a season and have never finished a season with a losing record when opening a year with a 3-1 mark.

Season Openers
 Bradley ended an eight-match losing streak in season openers with a four-set victory against South Carolina-Upstate at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational.  The Braves are now 18-18 in season openers.  Bradley also evened its record in home openers at 14-14 since the start of the 1982 season.

Opening At Home
 After playing four matches in two days to open the season, the Braves closed out a season-opening five-match homestand Tuesday with a three-set loss against Northern Illinois.  The five-match homestand is the longest for the Braves since the 2005 season.  Bradley was 4-1 during its last five-match homestand , with the lone loss against Northern Illinois in the final match of the Radisson Hotel Invitational at Robertson Memorial Field House.

Busy Stretch
 Tuesday's match against Northern Illinois was the Braves fifth match in five days, but doesn't bring to close the busiest stretch of the season for Bradley.  The Braves will play four matches in two days this weekend at the Radford Invitational, as Bradley will play nine matches in nine days to open the 2009 slate.

All-Tournament Honors
 Sophomore Megan Schmidt and freshman Alise Tupuritis were both named to the All-Tournament team at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational after helping Bradley to a 3-1 record and second-place finish.  Schmidt averaged 2.23 kills and 1.23 blocks per set while hitting an impressive .435.  Tupuritis led the Braves in kills in three of the four matches and averaged 3.33 kills, 2.60 digs and 0.47 aces per set while posting a pair of double-doubles. 
 
Aces Wild
 Bradley served up 31 service aces over the opening weekend for an average of 2.07 aces per set.  Freshman setter Skylar Lesan led the Braves with nine aces, while fellow freshman Alise Tupuritis and sophomore Annie Cave each added seven in the four matches.  The Braves served up nine aces in each of their three wins over the weekend, after having just two outings in 2008 with more than five aces.  Bradley averaged 0.94 aces per set last season.  Lesan has 10 aces through the first five matches of the season.  The Braves' leader in aces in 2008 was Megan Schmidt with 21.

Freshmen Making Impact
 Bradley's good start to the season can be credited, in part, to the play of the freshmen.  The Braves had three freshmen in the starting lineup in the season opener and through the first five matches a freshmen leads the squad in kills, attacks, assists and aces, while owning a team-leading two double-doubles.  Alise Tupuritis led Bradley in kills in four of the first five matches and has a team-best 60 kills (3.33 per set).  Skylar Lesan averages 10.11 assists per set and has served up 10 aces (0.56 per set).  Allie Gardner has started four of the five matches and averages 1.94 digs per set.

Efficient Attack
 Another reason for the Braves early season success has been a much improved offensive attack.  Bradley, which hit .146 as a team in 2008, boasts a .250 attack percentage after five matches this season.  The highlight of the opening weekend came against Chicago State, when the Braves owned a .395 attack percentage.  The .395 hitting percentage was the best for the Braves since hitting at a .430 clip at Indiana State on Sept. 14, 2002.

On The Internet
 Live stats for all Bradley home matches can be found on the Bradley Athletics website (www.bradleybraves.com) under the Live Stats link located near the top of the page.  A free audio stream and pay-per-view video streams for most home matches will be available at www.bradleybraves.com.

Home, Sweet Home
 After playing 10 of 13 home matches in 2008 at Illinois Central College's Lorene Ramsey Gym, the Braves return to campus for the bulk of the 2009 schedule and will call the Markin Family Student Recreation Center home this season.  The Markin Center will serve as Bradley's third home court in as many years, before Bradley moves into a new facility which will be completed this spring on the former site of Robertson Memorial Field House.  The Braves played the final three home matches of the 2008 season at the Markin Center and posted a four-set victory against NCAA Tournament participant Missouri State on Senior Night.  This season, Bradley will play a program record 19 home matches.  The Braves will play 13 of the first 19 matches of the year at home.

Home Tournaments
 Bradley is no stranger to hosting in-season tournaments, having hosted an in-season tournament 17 times in the last 26 years.  The Braves have had quite a bit of success when hosting in-season tournaments, boasting a 40-17 (.702) record in those events after going 3-1 at the season-opening Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational.  For the first time in program history Bradley will host a pair of in-season tournaments, also welcoming three teams to Peoria, Ill., for the CEFCU Classic, Sept. 11 & 12.  Bradley has gone undefeated in it's own tournament six times (1984, 1985, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005), while going winless in its own event just once (1987 (0-3).  The Braves are 5-2 (.714) under head coach Sean Burdette in home tournaments.

Up Next
 Bradley returns home for the second of two in-season tournament at the Markin Family Student Recreation Center.  The Braves welcome UTEP, Coppin State and Montana State to Peoria, Ill., for the CEFCU Classic, Sept. 11 & 12.  Bradley opens play Friday against UTEP and will face Coppin State and Montana State during Saturday's action.  The Braves will be facing UTEP for the first time and Saturday's match against Coppin State will be the second meeting in two weeks for the two programs as both take part in this weekend's Radford Invitational.  Bradley is 0-2 all-time against Montana State.

What's Back
 The Braves return 10 of 13 letterwinners, including five starters from last year's team.  Included in that group is Bradley's top four attackers and five of the team's top six in kills from 2008.  The 16-person roster features just three seniors and six upperclassmen.  Six newcomers (five freshman and one transfer) will help bolster the roster. 

New Setter
 Freshman Skylar Lesan has taken over the starting spot at setter, making her the first freshman to start at setter since two-time First-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference pick Sam Hardwick (1998-2001).  Hardwick led the Braves with 1,127 assists as a freshman and is the only player in program history with 500 kills, 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs.  Lesan is averaging 10.11 assists per set and leads the team with 10 service aces.  Her 182 assists on the year is already the 10th best total by a Bradley frosh.

Active Leaders
 Senior Amy Reichel is the Braves active career leader in kills with 636 in her career.  Reichel, who is 24th in career kills at Bradley, also ranks as Bradley's active career leader with 144 career blocks and 51 service aces.  Fellow senior Kaitlyn Comiskey is BU's active career leader in digs with 863 during her Bradley career.  Comiskey ranks 17th all-time with her 863 career digs and is 37 digs from becoming the 15th player in program history with 900 career digs.

Braves Picked Ninth In Preseason Poll
 Bradley was picked to finish ninth in a preseason poll of Missouri Valley Conference coaches, receiving 24 of a possible 100 points.  Defending regular-season champion Wichita State picked up nine of 10 first-place votes and is picked to defend its title.  Missouri State garnered the one remaining first-place vote and is second in the poll with 87 points.  Northern Iowa was third with 83.  Drake was selected to finish ahead of Bradley in eighth place at 33 points, while the Braves were ninth with 24 points.  Indiana State rounded out the poll in 10th place with 19 points. 

2009 MVC Volleyball Preseason Poll
Rk School (First-Place Votes) Points
1. Wichita State (9) 99
2. Missouri State (1) 87
3. Northern Iowa 83
4. Creighton 67
5. Southern Illinois 49
6. Evansville 47
7. Illinois State 42
8. Drake 33
9. Bradley 24
10. Indiana State 19