Volleyball Faces Road Tests At Missouri St. & Wichita St.

Ricky Bassman

Volleyball 10/5/2016 3:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- On the heels of the team's first sweep of a Missouri Valley Conference opponent in almost two years, Bradley Volleyball will hit the road again for a two-match road swing this weekend as the Braves take on Missouri State (Friday) and pre-season league favorite Wichita State (Saturday) this weekend.

Bradley (6-9 overall, 1-3 MVC) equaled its overall (6) and MVC win total from the 2015 with Saturday's home sweep of Evansville.

Missouri State (11-7 overall, 2-2 MVC) opened Valley play with a pair of five-set home losses, but pulled out five-set victories at both Northern Iowa and Drake last weekend. Wichita State (10-5 overall, 3-1 MVC) has played just one home match in the last month heading into a Friday night matchup with Loyola and the Shockers are 9-3 since opening the season with a 1-2 mark.

Links to live stats for both road matches will be available at BradleyBraves.com and both contests will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.

Bradley has not had an active player with at least 500 career kills since the 2013 season, but the Braves have a pair of individuals nearing that mark. Junior outside hitter Jamie Livaudais (Fenton, Mo./Rockwood Summit) has averaged 2.85 kills per set over the last four matches and is 40th in school history with 494 career kills.

Sophomore Erica Haslag (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias Catholic) is averaging a team-best 3.69 kills per set and has totaled 483 career kills in her 44 matches as a Brave. Haslag enters the weekend needing 17 kills in the next two outings to match Bradley Hall of Fame member Jenny Pavlas (46 matches) as the quickest individuals in program history to reach 500 career kills. The last Bradley individual to reach 500 career kills in 50 or less matches was Lindsay Stalzer (48 matches) in 2003.

Senior Kelsey Cave (Solon, Iowa/Solon) has stepped up her game since the start of Missouri Valley Conference play, averaging 3.38 kills per set and hitting .446 against league opponents. Her season hitting percentage of .385 is third in the MVC and would break the previous season record of .344 set by Rachel Jones in 2013. Cave has a chance to become just the fourth individual in program history to hit over .300 in a season while collecting at least 150 kills and would be the first Brave to do so since Jenna Passman in 2003.

Freshman setter Erin Olson (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove) has turned in double-doubles in two of the last three contests and has averaged nearly nine assists to go with over three digs per set in Valley play. Over the last six matches, Olson is hitting .364 and has averaged 7.45 assists and 2.70 digs per set. She is 68 assists from breaking into the top 10 assist totals for Bradley freshman.

The Braves will return home after the brief two-match road swing to play four of the next five matches at Renaissance Coliseum. Bradley hosts Northern Iowa Friday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. to open the stretch.

Print Friendly Version