PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball will play four of the last six matches of the 2015 regular season on the road, starting the stretch Friday with a 7 p.m. contest at I-74 rival Illinois State and will finish a two-match road swing Saturday at 6 p.m. (CST) at Indiana State.
The Braves split two home matches last week, rallying to top Evansville in five sets Friday for the team's first victory when dropping the first set since Nov. Nov. 23, 2013. Bradley has played five of the last eight matches at home and 10 of the last 15 at Renaissance Coliseum.
BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats for both contests and Saturday's match at Indiana State will be available on ESPN3. The Valley on ESPN3 is available through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.
Notes | The Valley on ESPN3 (Indiana St. Only) | Live Stats | Twitter Updates (@BradleySIDLive)
Junior Kelsey Cave (Solon, Iowa/Solon) has been in the lineup for each of the last five matches after missing the first seven Missouri Valley Conference games due to injury. Since her return, Cave has averaged 2.35 kills per set with a .389 attack percentage.
Freshman Erica Haslag (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias Catholic) continued her impressive rookie season with double-doubles in each of the two matches last week. Haslag's 242 kills this year are the most by a Bradley freshman since Amy Angelos in 2010 (257) and ranks as the 10th-best total by a Bradley freshman. Haslag broke the Renaissance Coliseum season kills record set by Angelos in 2010. The 11 double-digit kill efforts by Haslag this fall rank as the eighth-best total by a Bradley freshman since 1993.
Senior Lea Sack (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) is also coming off several impressive performances after averaging 6.33 digs per set during Bradley's recently completed two-match home stand. Sack is the first player in program history with four career performances with 30 or more digs after notching a career-best 32 digs Friday in the win against Evansville. She broke the Renaissance Coliseum season and career digs marks during a 25-dig effort against Southern Illinois Saturday. She enters the weekend 32 digs from reaching 1,300 in her career and is 62 from passing Samantha Hardwick for fifth all-time.
Bradley had four players reach double figures in kills Friday against Evansville, with Haslag notching a match-high 22. The Braves had not had four players record 10 or more kills in a match since the final match of 2014. Saturday against Southern Illinois, three Bradley individuals reached 10 kills. The seven double-digit kill efforts during the two-match home stand matched the team's total from the first 10 matches of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule.
Following the weekend road swing, Bradley returns to Renaissance Coliseum for the final home stand of 2015. The Braves host Missouri State Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. before closing out the home slate Saturday, Nov. 14 (7 p.m.) against league-leading Wichita State.
