PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley volleyball team returns to Renaissance Coliseum for the final home stand of the 2013 season, taking on Missouri State Thursday (7 p.m.) and league-leading Wichita State Saturday in a special 3 p.m. game to wrap up the home slate.
Seniors Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan), Alise Tupuritis (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) and Lauren Zerante (Elmhurst, Ill./York) along with redshirt junior Allie Falter (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X), who is expected to graduate in May 2014, will be recognized prior to Thursday's 7 p.m. contest against Missouri State.
Bradley (12-11 overall, 6-8 MVC) enters the final two weekends of the regular season tied with Loyola for sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings as the Braves look to qualify for the six-team Valley Tournament for the first time since 2005. Both Bradley and Loyola face the same teams the remainder of the 2013 season.
BU's overall win total is the best since finishing the 2011 season with a 12-16 record and the six MVC victories rank as the best total since posting a 9-9 league record in 2005.
The Braves have won their final home match of the season in each of the last three seasons and four of the last five years overall after posting a four-set victory against Drake in the final home contest of the 2012 season. A subscription video stream will be available at BradleyBraves.com along with links to live stats and an audio stream for both weekend matchups.
Angelos is eighth in school history in kills with 1,065 and is one of just four players in school history with 250 kills in each of their four seasons at Bradley. She ranks second in school history with a career .272 attack percentage and holds Renaissance Coliseum records for both career kills and kills in a season. The only player to rank in the top five in the Valley in both kills per set and attack percentage this season, her .322 hitting percentage this fall would tie for the third best in school history and she has a chance to become the first Bradley player to hit .300 or better in a season since 2003.
Falter battled injuries her first two seasons on The Hilltop, but was at full strength in 2012 and led the team with a 0.98 blocker per set average. She was the first Bradley player with 100 or more blocks in a season since 2004 last fall and she leads the team with a 0.71 blocks-per-set average in conference play this season.
Tupuritis enters the final two home matches of her career nine digs short of becoming the 10th individual in program history with 900 career kills and 600 digs. She is currently 15th in school history with 953 career kills and is just three kills from passing Nicole Gagnon for 14th at Bradley. Over the last five matches, Tupuritis has averaged 3.70 kills per set and is 47 kills from becoming the 13th Brave with 1,000 career kills.
Zerante is looking to become the first player in program history with 450 or more digs in two different seasons, needing 21 digs to reach the 450 mark this fall. Currently fifth in school history with 1,229 career digs, she is 100 digs behind Bradley Hall of Fame member Sam Hardwick for fourth place on the all-time chart. Zerante's 429 digs in 2013 is tied for the seventh-best season total in school history.
Following the home stand, Bradley will finish out the 2013 regular-season schedule with a pair of road matches in Iowa. The Braves face Northern Iowa, Nov. 22 in Cedar Falls, Iowa, before a Nov. 23 contest at Drake.
