Volleyball Continues Road Swing At Illinois State

Barathwaj Rudraboina

Volleyball 10/11/2017 3:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball continues a four-match Missouri Valley Conference road swing and closes out the first half of its MVC regular-season schedule Friday at Redbird Arena against I-74 rival Illinois State in Normal, Ill.

After playing 22 matches in a 46-day span to open the season, including eight MVC contests in an 18-day stretch, the Braves (8-14 overall, 1-7 MVC) have just one match on the slate this week and close the regular-season with 10 matches over a 37-day period starting with Friday's 7 p.m. contest against the Redbirds (12-9 overall, 5-3 MVC).

Friday's match at Illinois State will be available on ESPN3 as part of the MVC media rights agreement with ESPN. The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.

Junior Yavianliz Rosado had a career-best 33 digs Monday at Evansville as she led five Bradley players in double figures in digs to help the Braves reach 100 digs in a match for the first time since 2010. Rosado topped 30 digs in a match for the fourth time this season and her 33 digs were the most on The Hilltop since 2013 in addition to tying for the sixth-best match total in school history.

On the season, Rosado has 451 digs, which already ranks eighth among Bradley season marks. She needs 25 digs to pass Kaitlyn Comiskey (2007) for seventh on the Bradley season digs list and is 48 digs from catching Lauren Zerante (2012) for sixth.

Fellow junior Erica Haslag has had 18 or more kills in each of the last two outings and her conference-leading 352 kills this year are the most at Bradley since 2006. Haslag needs 10 kills for the highest season total by a Brave since Lindsay Stalzer had a MVC season-record 720 kills in 2005 to lead the nation. Haslag is closing in on 1,000 career kills and is currently 15th in program history with 967. She needs 23 kills to pass Cindy Novak for 14th all-time in Bradley history.

Sophomore Hannah Angeli has collected double-doubles in each of the last two matches and three of the last four outings to push her team-best double-double total on the year to 15. The last Bradley individual with 15 double-doubles in a season was Sam Black (15) in 2007 and the last Brave with more than 15 double-doubles in a season was Stalzer (19) in 2005. Angeli is Bradley's first player with 80 kills, 800 assists, 19 aces and 250 or more digs in a season since Sam Hardwick in 2001.

Freshman Ezri Edwards has been enjoying a bit of a hot streak heading into Friday's contest. The Bloomington, Ill., native has had a season-high 11 kills in each of the last two contests and over her last six matches has averaged 1.62 kills per set while hitting .253.

Sophomore Kathryn Graf has also been very productive for the Braves lately as she has averaged 2.80 kills with a .343 attack percentage over the last nine contests. Graf's conference-best 82 blocks this fall give her the most blocks by a Brave since 2012.

Following Friday's outing at Illinois State, Bradley will face pre-season Valley favorite Missouri State Friday, Oct. 20 in Springfield, Mo.

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