PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley volleyball head coach Sean Burdette and his Braves will open a season-long, four-match road swing with one of the toughest matches on the schedule as the Braves visit preseason Missouri Valley Conference favorite and 14th-ranked Northern Iowa Friday night. BU will play its final non-conference road match of the season Sunday at 2 p.m. at SIU Edwardsville.
The Braves (4-13 overall, 0-6 MVC) are coming off a hard-fought, four-set home loss to Evansville Saturday heading into Friday's 7 p.m. match against the Panthers at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Bradley will be playing a ranked team for the first time since facing 11th-ranked Wichita State at home on Nov. 14, 2008. The Braves have played a ranked team 21 times since the start of the 1998 season and are 2-19 in those contests. Both victories against ranked teams have come against UNI, but came in the friendly confines of Robertson Memorial Field House during the 2001 and 2002 seasons.
Senior Melissa Collins (Manchester, Mo./Parkway South) tallied a season-high 16 kills Saturday against the Purple Aces and is closing in on a spot in the top 25 on Bradley's career kills list. Collins notched her 600th career kill last outing and enters the weekend needing 19 kills to pass Sandi Kasting for 25th on BU's kill chart.
Junior Rachelle Dejean (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) moved into 14th place on Bradley's career digs list, passing Jami Greve and enters this weekend's play 57 digs behind Briony Hammet for 13th place. Fellow junior Megan Schmidt (Bloomington, Ill./Central Catholic) finished with 13 kills Saturday against Evansville and is 12 kills from joining Collins in the top 30 on Bradley's career kills list.
Northern Iowa (15-2 overall, 6-0 MVC) has won 10 consecutive matches since falling in three sets at then 11th-ranked Iowa State in early September and has climbed to #14 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. The Panthers are 1-2 against ranked teams this season, picking up a win at #8 Minnesota, with the team's only other loss coming to then 20th-ranked Dayton at a neutral site. The preseason MVC favorite, UNI went undefeated in the Missouri Valley Conference last season.
SIU Edwardsville is 9-7 on the year after posting a five-set victory against UMKC Tuesday. The Cougars have won six of their last eight matches, but own a 3-4 record at home. SIUE has played five matches against Missouri Valley Conference teams this season, including two contests against Indiana State; but is 0-5 in those outings.
Bradley continues the road swing next weekend with matches at Indiana State (Saturday, Oct. 16) and at I-74 rival Illinois State (Sunday, Oct. 17).
