Volleyball Looks To Extend Streaks On The Road

Julie Kestas

Volleyball 10/4/2018 11:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball puts an eight-match win streak and a perfect 4-0 Missouri Valley Conference record on the line when the Braves hit the road for a pair of league contests, visiting Drake Friday before a Saturday matchup with league co-leader Northern Iowa.

Home wins against Indiana State last Friday and a sweep of Evansville Saturday pushed Bradley's (14-2 overall, 4-0 MVC) win streak to eight matches in addition to giving the Braves just the third 4-0 start to Valley play in program history (2005 & 2002). BU has not had a win streak of longer than eight matches since 2002 (11).

Friday's 7 p.m. match at Drake (13-5 overall, 2-2 MVC) will be available on ESPN+, while Saturday's 7 p.m. contest at Northern Iowa (10-6 overall, 4-0 MVC) can be found on ESPN3. Bradley enters the weekend in a three-way tie with Northern Iowa and Illinois State atop the MVC standings at 4-0, with the Redbirds and Panthers meeting Friday night in Cedar Falls, Iowa. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for both matches.

Bradley's 14 wins in 2018 are the most since ending the 2005 campaign with a 16-17 mark and the last time the Braves posted four or more MVC victories was 2013 (7). Bradley is already guaranteed an improved conference record in three consecutive seasons, marking the first time since 1992-94 the Braves have had a better conference record in three straight years.

Freshman outside hitter Hannah Thompson has been named MVC Freshman of the Week twice in 2018 and continues to impress after tallying a season-best 24 kills last Friday against Indiana State along with her team-best eighth double-double of the year Saturday vs. Evansville. Thompson's 24 kills were the most in a match by a Bradley freshman since senior Erica Haslag collected 24 kills against Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 18, 2015.

In fact, only two Bradley freshmen have had an outing of more than 24 kills with Marika Giguere collecting 28 kills against Missouri State during the 2000 season and Cindy Novak notching 26 kills as a frosh against Southern Illinois in 1992. Thompson is one of two freshmen in the country with 190 or more kills and at least 230 digs through matches of Sept. 30, joining Samford's Lauren Deaton.

Senior libero Yavianliz Rosado is averaging a conference-best 6.50 digs per set in MVC play after collecting a career-best 35 digs in last Friday's four-set win against Indiana State. Rosado owns a school career record six 30-dig outings and her 35 digs tied for the fourth-best single match total in BU history. In fact, Rosado's performance was the highest dig total by a Brave in a four-set match under the 25-point format and were the most digs by a Bradley player since Lauren Zerante had a pair of 36-dig outings in five set matches in 2013.

Rosado has been named the MVC Defensive Player of the Week each of the past two weeks and is closing in on 1,000 career digs during her near two-year Bradley career, needing 27 digs to become the 17th play in program history to reach the mark. This season, she ranks 12th in the nation in digs per set (5.58) and has helped anchor a Bradley defense which is fifth in the country in digs per set (18.63) in addition to holding opponents to the third lowest hitting percentage (.143) in the country.

Haslag was named one of 30 candidates for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award earlier this week and is one of two MVC players among the 30 candidates for the award. She is fifth in school history in career kills at 1,375 and currently 10th in career kills among active NCAA Division I players. Haslag heads into the weekend needing 25 kills to pass Stacey Besjak for fourth in career kills at Bradley and is 33 kills from climbing ahead of Betsy Buckhold for third.

The Braves follow up the weekend road swing through Iowa with a two-match home stand which starts Friday, Oct. 12 with a 7 p.m. match against Loyola at Renaissance Coliseum.

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Players Mentioned

#3 Erica Haslag: OH; 5' 11"; Senior

#1 Yavianliz Rosado: DS/L; 5' 6"; Senior

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

Players Mentioned

#3 Erica Haslag
: 5' 11"; Senior
: OH

#1 Yavianliz Rosado
: 5' 6"; Senior
: DS/L

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

Volleyball Looks To Extend Streaks On The Road

Players Mentioned

#3 Erica Haslag

#1 Yavianliz Rosado

#6 Hannah Thompson

Players Mentioned

#3 Erica Haslag

#1 Yavianliz Rosado

#6 Hannah Thompson