PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley volleyball team will play its fourth consecutive match against a team which advanced to the 2010 NCAA Tournament Friday at Creighton, before finishing off a season-long, three-match Missouri Valley Conference road swing Saturday night at Drake in Des Moines, Iowa.
The weekend road swing through Omaha, Neb., and Des Moines, Iowa, wraps up the first half of Missouri Valley Conference play for the Braves, who follow up the trip with six of the next eight matches at Renaissance Coliseum. Friday's 6:30 p.m. match at Creighton concludes a four-match stretch against NCAA Tournament teams, which also included contests against Missouri State, Wichita State and 12th-ranked Northern Iowa.
Saturday's 7 p.m. matchup with Drake wraps up arguably the toughest five-match stretch of the season, which included three road tilts and five matches against squads which combined for a 116-44 (.725) record in 2010. Four of the last eight matchups with the Bulldogs have gone to five sets.
Live stats and video streaming for both matches will be available via the Bradley Athletics website (www.BradleyBraves.com).
Senior Rachelle Dejean has averaged 4.12 digs per set in six career matches against Drake and has reached double figures in digs in five of those contests. In fact, over the last four matchups against the Bulldogs, Dejean has averaged an impressive 4.81 digs per set. Currently fourth in career digs at BU, Dejean needs 83 digs to pass Sam Hardwick for third in school history. Dejean is 82 digs from breaking Hardwick's career school record of 905 digs in Missouri Valley Conference play.
Fellow senior Annie Cave (Easton, Ill./Illini Central) led Bradley with eight kills and hit .421 in Friday's loss at 12th-ranked Northern Iowa to open the current three-match road swing. Cave, who is averaging 2.12 kills per set against Valley opponents, is hitting .356 with a 2.70 kills-per-set average over the last three matches.
Bradley opens the second half of Missouri Valley Conference play at home, kicking off a three-match homestand Thursday, Oct. 20 with a 7 p.m. match against I-74 rival Illinois State at Renaissance Coliseum. The home match against Illinois State will be the team's annual Dig Pink match. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to the match against the Redbirds and can donate money to the Side Out Foundation's Dig Pink initiative at the following web site http://www.side-out.org/application/ous/fundraising_page/2758
