PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley volleyball team concludes the regular season with a pair of matches in the state of Iowa, looking to wrap up a spot in next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in Wichita, Kan.
The Braves play a 7 p.m. match at Northern Iowa Friday, before concluding the 2013 regular-season slate Saturday with a 7 p.m. contest at Drake. Bradley (12-13 overall, 6-10 MVC) is tied with Loyola for sixth in the Valley standings heading into the final two outings of the season and the teams face the same opponents on the road this weekend. The Ramblers play at Drake (2-26 overall, 0-16 MVC) Friday and conclude the season Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa, against Northern Iowa (21-7 overall, 6-10 MVC). Indiana State is also close behind, one game behind Bradley and Loyola in eighth place at 5-11 in the MVC. The Sycamores play road matches at Evansville (Friday) and Southern Illinois (Saturday) this weekend.
Five of six spots in the tournament field have been secured going into the final weekend of the season. Bradley is trying to earn a spot in the tournament for the first time since the 2005 event and will be wrapping up the regular season on the road for the fourth consecutive year. The Braves have not ended the regular season with a victory since 2004 and will be looking for a road win to close the regular-season for the first time since 2001.
Bradley All-Access subscribers will be able to watch both matches at BradleyBraves.com, which will also provide links to live stats for both contests.
The Braves will be wearing “Central Illinois Strong” t-shirts during pregame warmups as a reminder of the on-going relief efforts for the thousands of people affected by storms which devastated Peoria's neighboring communities of East Peoria, Pekin and Washington Sunday. The t-shirts are available for purchase at Gainlight.com for $10, with all proceeds donated to the Central Illinois chapter of the American Red Cross for tornado relief efforts.
Senior Alise Tupuritis (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) leads the team with 284 kills this season and could become the third player in program history to lead the squad in kills in three different seasons. She is 16 kills short of being the first Bradley player since 2006 with 300 kills and 200 digs in a season. In addition, Tupuritis is 18 kills from becoming the 13th Brave with 1,000 career kills.
Fellow senior Lauren Zerante (Elmhurst, Ill./York) is the only player in school history with 450 or more digs in two different seasons after reaching the mark last weekend and her 469 digs this fall rank as the sixth best season total at Bradley. She needs 31 digs to become just the fourth individual with 500 digs in a season and is also 31 digs from reaching 1,300 in her career.
Tupuritis and Zerante aren't the only Braves closing in on milestones, however. Senior Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan) is just eight kills from reaching 1,100 in her career and needs eight blocks to reach the 300 mark. She would be just the fourth player in school history to record 1,100 career kills, 40 aces and 300 blocks, joining Lindsay Stalzer, Betsy Buckhold and Abigail Kohnen.
The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament will be held Nov. 28 through Nov. 30 in Wichita, Kan., with Thursday's opening round matches scheduled for 5 and 7:30 p.m.
