Volleyball Opens Second Half Of MVC Schedule At Home

UNI Athletics

Volleyball 10/17/2018 2:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball puts a 10-match home win streak on the line this weekend when the Braves open the second-half of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season schedule at home with a Friday contest against defending MVC champion Missouri State and a Saturday matchup with Southern Illinois.

Friday's 7 p.m. match at Renaissance Coliseum against Missouri State (11-10 overall, 4-4 MVC) will be $1 hot dog night and the Braves will hold a post-match autograph session following the outing against the Bears. Missouri State has won four of its last five matches with the lone setback to league-leading Northern Iowa to move up into sixth in the Valley standings.

Saturday will also be a 7 p.m. first serve against Southern Illinois (4-17 overall, 0-8 MVC) and will be Breast Cancer Awareness Night at Renaissance Coliseum. The first 300 fans will receive free pink wristbands. Third-year Bradley Volleyball head coach Carol Price-Torok will hold a free pre-match "Chalk Talk" at 6:15 p.m. open to all fans.

Bradley (16-5 overall, 6-3 MVC) enters the weekend alone in third in the MVC standings and is riding a 10-match home win streak which is tied for the second longest in school history. The 1985 squad won 11 consecutive home contests during a season in which the Braves were 12-2 at home. Bradley has just three seasons on record with more than 10 home victories with the last coming in 2002 (12-5).

Friday's outing against Missouri State will be available on ESPN+ (subscription required), while Saturday's contest vs. Southern Illinois can viewed ESPN3. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for both contests.

Bradley's 16 wins this fall are already six more than the Braves earned during the course of the entire 2017 season. In fact, Bradley is one of just five teams in the country and two MVC squads to have a six-win improvement from last year through matches of Oct. 16. Joining BU in the exclusive group is Florida International, St. Peter's, Loyola and UNLV. The Braves have a six-win improvement for the first time since the 2005 campaign when the Braves followed a 9-20 2004 season with a 16-17 record.

With a 6-3 league record at the halfway point of the Valley schedule, Bradley won six Valley games in the first half of the conference schedule for the first time since 2005 (6-3) and just the fifth time since the MVC went to an 18-match regular-season schedule in 1996.

The Braves have had a better second half of conference play three of the last four years and six of the last eight seasons overall. In fact, Bradley has matched or improved on its first half of Valley play in the second half of 11 of the last 12 seasons with the only exception in 2013, which was the last time the Braves reached the MVC Tournament.

Bradley and Northern Iowa are the only Valley teams to not suffer a three-set loss in league play and BU's five losses on the year have come to teams with a combined 74-33 (.692) record through Oct. 16.

Freshman Hannah Thompson has had double-doubles in three of the last four matches to push her season total to 11 and her season kill and dig totals both rank among the top 10 freshman marks in Bradley history. Her 245 kills rank as the 10^th-best total by a Bradley freshman and her 313 digs are sixth among freshman totals on The Hilltop.

The Braves follow up the weekend home stand with a two-match road swing which starts Friday, Oct. 26 at Evansville.

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Players Mentioned

#6 Hannah Thompson: OH; 5' 8"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#6 Hannah Thompson
: 5' 8"; Freshman
: OH

Volleyball Opens Second Half Of MVC Schedule At Home

Players Mentioned

#6 Hannah Thompson

Players Mentioned

#6 Hannah Thompson