PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball returns to Renaissance Coliseum after playing five of the last eight matches on the road to host Evansville Friday night and Southern Illinois Saturday evening. The Braves will play four of the next six matches at home starting with Friday's matchup with the Purple Aces.
Saturday's matchup with Southern Illinois will include free candy for children in attendance and a costume contest with the winner receiving a gift certificate for a free pizza from Papa John's. Both contests will start at 7 p.m.
The two-match home stand will push Bradley's total to 10 matches in the month of October, to mark the busiest October for the Braves since 2006. In addition, Bradley will have played a total of 13 home matches after taking on SIU Saturday, marking the most home matches for the Braves since 2011. Bradley has not played as many as 13 home matches prior to the start of November since 2010 (14).
Notes | The Valley on ESPN3 | Live Stats | Twitter Updates (@BradleySIDLive) | Tickets
BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats for both tilts and both matches will be available on ESPN3. The Valley on ESPN3 is available through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.
Evansville (8-16 overall, 2-8 MVC) won the season's first meeting in four sets earlier this month in Evansville, Ind., but Bradley owns a 26-22 edge in the series. The teams split the regular-season series last year with the home team winning each match. The Braves are 13-9 in home matches against the Purple Aces.
Southern Illinois (16-7 overall, 7-3 MVC) is tied with Loyola for second in the Missouri Valley Conference standings heading into a Friday night matchup with the Ramblers in Chicago. Bradley and SIU have split the last four matchups at Renaissance Coliseum. Saturday's match marks the second straight year the Braves and Salukis will meet at Renaissance Coliseum on Halloween. Bradley had not played a home match on Halloween since 1998 prior to last year's match with SIU.
Freshman Erica Haslag (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias Catholic) leads the team with 207 kills this season and enters the home stand needing 25 kills for the most by a Bradley freshman since 2010.
Haslag, who has led the team in kills in four consecutive matches and six of the last eight outings, is 31 kills short of pushing her kill total among the top 10 for a Bradley freshman and needs just six digs to become the fourth Bradley freshman with 200 kills, 20 aces, 100 digs and 35 or more blocks. The last Bradley freshman to reach those marks was Megan Schmidt in 2008.
Senior Lea Sack (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) is closing in on a few marks of her own after collecting 199 digs in 11 home matches this season. She needs 39 digs to break the Renaissance Coliseum season record for digs of 237 set by Lauren Zerante in 2013. In addition she is 54 digs short of topping Zerante's Renaissance Coliseum career digs mark of 634.
Following the home stand, Bradley will play four of the last six matches of the regular season away from home; starting the stretch Friday, Nov. 6 at I-74 rival Illinois State (7 p.m.).
