PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley volleyball opens the final home stand of the season Saturday with a 7 p.m. match against Loyola at Renaissance Coliseum as the Braves start a three-match home stand to wrap up the 2014 schedule.
Bradley will conclude the regular-season slate with a three-match home stand for the first time since 1999 and will be looking to avenge a three-set loss at Loyola on Oct. 17 which started the second half of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule.
The Braves have won the last two home matches in the series with Loyola and the teams split the regular-season series last year in the Ramblers' first year as a member of the MVC. Loyola has dropped six straight matches since the win against Bradley in mid-October, while the Braves swept Evansville on Nov. 1 in the team's last match at Renaissance Coliseum.
BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats for Saturday's matchup in addition to a subscription video stream.
Freshman Taylor Thiele (Aurora, Neb./Aurora) collected her 200th kill of the season Saturday at I-74 rival Illinois State to become the eighth freshman in school history with 200 kills and 200 digs in a season. Melissa Collins was the last Bradley freshman with 200 kills and 200 digs in 2007.
In addition to Thiele's production, fellow freshman Jamie Livaudais (Fenton, Mo./Rockwood Summit) recently tallied a season-best 17 kills at Indiana State last Friday and has averaged 2.80 kills per set over the last six outings. Livaudais is second on the squad with 177 kills as the Braves have a pair of freshman with 175 or more kills in the same season for the first time since 1993. The only two freshmen to reach 200 or more kills in the same season are Jenny Pavlas (301) and Joy Ostendorf (251) in 1993.
Not to be outdone, freshman setter Afton Sobasky (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) has also put herself in rare company. Sobasky's 623 assists rank as the seventh best total by a Bradley freshman and she is one kill, 27 assists and one block from becoming just the third freshman in school history with 70 kills, 650 assists, 175 digs and 30 or more blocks.
Junior Lea Sack (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) has averaged 5.08 digs per set in the last four matches and is closing in on the top 25 in Bradley history in digs. Currently 27th in school history with 792 career digs, Sack is six digs from breaking into the top 25 and eight short of reaching 800. She would be the 11th Brave to reach 800 career digs before their senior year.
After Saturday's matchup with the Ramblers, Bradley hosts Northern Iowa Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. before concluding the 2014 season Nov. 22 against Drake (7 p.m.).
