PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley Volleyball team finishes out the first half of Missouri Valley Conference play with a pair of road matches, playing Friday at preseason conference favorite Wichita State (6 p.m.) and Saturday at Missouri State (7 p.m.).
The Braves (10-6 overall, 4-3 MVC) opened MVC play with five of the first seven league matches at home and will now play five of the next seven on the road starting with Friday's matchup at Wichita State. Bradley is fifth in the Valley standings heading into the weekend with a 4-3 league record and the Braves have their best overall and conference records this late in the season for the first time since the 2005 campaign.
Wichita State (17-4 overall, 6-1 MVC) is coming off a five-set, home victory against Louisville Tuesday and the second-place Shockers are one game behind league-leader Illinois State in the MVC standings after falling in four sets at Illinois State last Friday.
Missouri State (11-8 overall, 3-4 MVC) opened the season with a 6-1 record, but has posted a 5-7 mark in the last 12 outings going into a Friday night home match against Loyola. The Bears and Ramblers are tied for sixth in the MVC standings, one game behind the Braves.
BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats for both contests and Bradley All-Access subscribers will be able to watch Friday's match at Wichita State. A video stream of Saturday's match at Missouri State is available at MissouriStateBears.com
Bradley is averaging a league-best 17.00 digs per set in 2013, which would rank as the team's best average since 2006 (17.99 per set) and the squad's best average under the 25-point format currently in use. The Braves rank 14th in the country in digs per set through matches of Oct. 13.
Senior Lauren Zerante (Elmhurst, Ill./York) has helped anchor the backline and ranks third in the MVC in digs per set with a 5.05 average. Currently 24th in the country in digs, Zerante needs 26 digs to move up two spots on Bradley's career digs list into the top 10.
Fellow senior Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan) recently broke into the top 10 in career kills at Bradley and has a chance to move up several more spots in school history this weekend. Angelos notched her 1,000th kill last Tuesday against Northern Iowa and is 10 kills from passing Laura Benzing for ninth in program history. Angelos needs 25 kills to overtake Blythe Zajakowski for eighth place on the kills chart.
Freshman Rachel Jones (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) returned to the floor Saturday against Loyola after missing the mid-week contest against Northern Iowa and collected nine kills while boasting a .615 attack percentage. Jones has appeared in five of the last six matches and is averaging 2.70 kills per set and attacking at a .420 clip.
During Bradley's recently completed four-match home stand, sophomore Kristi Chynoweth (Parkland, Fla./North Broward) averaged 2.38 kills per set to go with an impressive .406 attack percentage. Over the last eight matches, Chynoweth is third on the team in kills (2.50 per set) combined with a .324 hitting percentage during that stretch.
After the trip out west, the Braves open the second half of the league schedule Friday, Oct. 25 with a home match against Evansville (7 p.m.).
