Opening At Home
Bradley is opening a season at home for the second consecutive season and will play its season opener in Peoria, Ill., in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1993 and 1994 seasons. The Braves have opened a season at home just seven times since the start of the 1982 campaign and are 6-1 in those contests.
Home, Sweet Home
Bradley will be using its fourth home court in as many seasons, when the Braves open up the 2010 season Friday against in-state rival Western Illinois. BU's longtime home, Robertson Memorial Field House, was razed following the 2007 season to make way for the Bradley University arena. The Braves called Illinois Central College's Lorene Ramsey Gym home for the 2008 season and returned to campus for the 2009 season, playing a school-record 19 home matches at the Markin Family Student Recreation Center. The recently completed $55-million Bradley University arena seats 4,200 fans. Seniors Melissa Collins and Caitlin Staib were freshman on the 2007 squad and will be the only players to see action in all four facilities.
Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational Field
Bradley will open the season against a familiar foe, facing in-state opponent and former Gateway Conference member Western Illinois, Friday, Aug. 27 in the first match at the Bradley University arena. The Westerwinds topped BU in five sets last season, but Bradley holds a 23-18 lead in the all-time series. The Braves are 11-8 all-time in home matches against WIU and have won 10 of the last 11 overall in the series. Bradley kicks off Saturday's action at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational against USC-Upstate. The Braves defeated the Spartans last season in the season opener in the only other meeting between the two programs. BU concludes tournament play against Southeast Missouri State. Bradley owns a 4-3 edge in the all-time series, which dates back to the 1979 season. SEMO won the last meeting in four sets in 2006, but BU has won two of the last three meetings and boasts a perfect 2-0 record against the Redhawks in home matches.
Season Openers
Bradley opens its 37th season of intercollegiate volleyball when the Braves host the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational, Aug. 27 & 28. The Braves are 18-18 in season openers after ending an eight-match losing streak in season-opening contests with a four-set victory against USC-Upstate to kick off the 2009 campaign.
Home Openers
In addition to evening its record in season openers with last year's four-set victory against USC-Upstate in the season opener, Bradley also evened its mark in home openers since the start of the 1982 season to 14-14 with last year's win against the Spartans. This year's home opener against Western Illinois (Aug. 27) is the earliest BU has played a home match in program history, surpassing the mark of Aug. 28 set last season.
Attendance Mark To Fall?
The Braves are hoping to set a new attendance record during Friday's season-opening and arena-opening contest against Western Illinois. The previous attendance record of 1,313 was set on Nov. 12, 1999 against Illinois State. Bradley has drawn two crowds of better than 1,000 heading into the 2010 opener with both matches coming against Illinois State. The record attendance for a non-conference match is 612 set against Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 6, 2002.
Home Tournaments
For the second consecutive year Bradley will host a pair of in-season tournaments. The Braves open the season Aug. 27 & 28 with the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational and also host the CEFCU Classic Sept. 10 & 11. Bradley is no stranger to hosting in-season tournaments, having hosted an in-season tournament 18 times in the last 26 years. The Braves have also had quite a bit of success when hosting in-season tournaments, boasting a 42-18 (.700) record in those events. Bradley has gone undefeated in its 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 7-3 (.700) under head coach Sean Burdette in home tournaments.
Up Next
Bradley will travel to DeKalb, Ill., for a midweek non-conference matchup with Northern Illinois Tuesday. The Huskies hold an 11-5 lead in the all-time series and have won three consecutive meetings. NIU is 7-1 in home games in the series, with BU's lone victory coming during the 1985 season.
Can You Dig It
Junior Rachelle Dejean has led the team in digs each of the last two seasons and enters the year with a chance to become the first player since Sam Hardwick to lead the squad in digs in three consecutive years. Already owning two of the top 10 single-match dig totals in BU history, Dejean's 413 digs as a freshman ranks as the 10th best season total in program history and she needs just 41 digs to become the 22nd player in program history with 800 career digs. Through 64 matches she has averaged 11.9 digs per match and needs 241 digs to become the 13th player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs.
Redshirt Season
Redshirt freshman Alise Tupuritis is expected to make a return to the court after missing the final 23 matches of the 2009 season. Tupurits led the team in kills (97) and kills per set (3.13), while earning all-tournament honors at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational and Radford Invitational before suffering a season-ending injury. At the time of her injury, she ranked third on the team in aces (12) and digs (60) and finished the year sixth on the team in kills and fifth on the squad in aces despite missing over two-thirds of the season. Tupuritis will have four years of eligibility remaining.
Most Wins Since 2005
Bradley finished the 2009 season with its most victories since finishing the 2005 campaign with a 16-17 record. In addition to picking up the most overall wins in four years, BU also boasted the most home wins (6), since finishing the 2005 season with a 10-5 home mark.
Non-Conference Success
The Braves wrapped up the 2009 non-conference portion of the schedule with a five-set victory against SIU Edwardsville and finished the year with a 9-5 record against non-league foes. Bradley's nine non-conference wins are the most since 2001 and the Braves 9-5 record is the squad's best since going 9-3 against non-conference opponents in 2001.
Keeping It In State
Bradley's season-opening match against Western Illinois is the first of five in-state non-conference contests and nine matches overall against teams from the Land of Lincoln. The Braves finished the 2009 season 2-2 against in-state non-conference foes and posted at least a .500 record against in-state non-conference opponents for the first time since going 3-3 in 2005. The Braves are 35-22 (.614) against in-state non-conference foes since the start of the 1995 campaign.
Back-To-Back-To-Back
Junior Megan Schmidt has led the team in blocks each of her first two seasons on The Hilltop and is looking to become the first player to lead the team in blocks in three consecutive years since Jenna Passman (2001, 2002 & 2003). Schmidt has a chance to join Passman and Sandi Kasting (1982, 1983 & 1984) as the only players in program history to lead the team in blocks in three different seasons. She is BU's active career leader in blocks with 179 and needs 119 blocks to move into Bradley's career top 10.
What's Back
The Braves return nine of 14 letterwinners, including four starters from last year's team, but youth still prevails on BU's roster. Bradley has nine underclassmen on the roster and 10 of the 16 team members boast one or fewer years of experience at the NCAA Division I level. Despite the prevalence of youth on the squad, BU's attack for 2010 includes five of the top six in kills from 2009 and seven of the top eight attackers from the previous year. In addition, Bradley's roster features four of the top five in digs from 2009.
Braves Picked 10th In Preseason Poll
Bradley was picked to finish 10th in a preseason poll of Missouri Valley Conference coaches, receiving 16 of a possible 100 points. Defending regular-season and tournament champion Northern Iowa was a unanimous pick to defend its title, receiving all 10 first-place votes.
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 all home matches will be available at www.bradleybraves.com.
Active Leaders
Senior Melissa Collins enters the 2010 season as Bradley's active career kills leader with 549 in her first three seasons on The Hilltop and ranks 30th all-time in school history. Junior Megan Schmidt is second among active players with 417 career kills (39th place). Junior libero Rachelle Dejean is 27th in career digs and needs just 20 digs to move into BU's career top 25.
