PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley looks to continue its winning ways when the Braves close out the 2010 season with road matches at Missouri State (Friday) and at Wichita State (Saturday). BU won in three sets against I-74 rival Illinois State, before winning a five-set match against Indiana State in the final home match of the season last week.
The Braves are coming off consecutive Missouri Valley Conference victories for the first time since the 2005 season and have won four of their last six overall heading into the final week of the 2010 season. The conference wins helped BU move into ninth in the Valley standings and gave Bradley it's most league victories since 2006. The three-set victory against Illinois State was BU's first three-set victory against the Redbirds since the 1994 season.
Freshman Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan) is looking to become the first freshman in program history to lead Bradley in kills, owning a 20-kill lead on junior Megan Schmidt (Bloomington, Ill./Central Catholic) to pace the Braves. Angelos' 240 kills are the most by a BU frosh since Lindsay Stalzer in 2002 and ranks as the ninth best total by a Bradley freshman. Schdmit averaged 2.75 kills per set in a pair of matches last week to move into 25th on Bradley's career kills list, passing Sandi Kasting.
Junior Rachelle Dejean (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) climbed into 11th on Bradley's career digs list and needs just seven digs to pass Stacy Besjak for 10th in program history. Dejean enters the final week of the year with a chance to move up two spots on the digs chart, trailing Stephanie Behrns by 29 digs for ninth place.
Missouri State owns a 20-7 overall record and the Bears are tied with Creighton for third in the Missouri Valley Conference standings at 11-5 heading into the final weekend of regular-season play. Missouri State is 11-3 at home this season, including a 6-1 mark at home in conference action, and has already secured a top four seed in next week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Wichita State (20-5 overall, 13-3 MVC) is alone in second place in the standings heading into Friday's match against league-leading Northern Iowa. The Shockers boast a 9-1 home record this season and can lock up the #2 seed in next week's Valley Tournament with one win or losses by both Missouri State and Creighton. Wichita State received three points in the latest AVCA Top 25 poll released earlier this week.
Live stats for both matches will be available at BradleyBraves.com along with a video stream for Saturday's match at Wichita State.
