Volleyball Returns Home To Host #25 UNI & Drake

Josh Schwam

Volleyball 11/1/2018 10:30:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball enters the final three weeks of the regular season alone in third in the Missouri Valley Conference standings and has a big weekend on tap with the Braves hosting league-leading and 25th-ranked Northern Iowa Friday in addition to a Saturday night matchup with Drake.

Both contests will start at 7 p.m. with Friday's tilt against UNI (18-7 overall, 12-0 MVC) available on ESPN3. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for both matches. Friday night's matchup with Northern Iowa will be $1 hot dog night at Renaissance Coliseum.

Bradley (19-6 overall, 9-4 MVC) has won a school record 12 consecutive home matches heading into Friday's home contest against Northern Iowa and the Braves have won five of their last seven overall. BU is alone in third in the Valley standings at 9-4, three games behind second-place Illinois State (12-1) and a full game ahead of fourth-place Valparaiso (8-5), which plays at Loyola Friday.

Drake (17-10 overall, 5-7 MVC) sits in seventh in the MVC standings prior to a Friday night outing at Illinois State. Both Drake and UNI pulled out four-set victories vs. the Braves in the season's first matchups back in early October.

Bradley earned its 19th victory of the season last Friday at Evansville and sits one win short of the first 20-win season since 2001 (24-8). The Braves have three 20-win seasons over the last 31 years with the 1999 (20-6) and 1988 (22-15) squads joining the 2001 team.

Freshman Hannah Thompson has turned in double-doubles in five consecutive matches and seven of the last eight contests, owning a team-best 15 double-doubles on the year. Her 15 double-doubles are the most by a Bradley freshman as she broke the previous mark of 14 double-doubles held by Marika Giguere (2000) with 18 kills and 18 digs Saturday at Indiana State.

The only freshman in school history with 290 kills and 380 or more digs, her 293 kills rank as the fifth-best total by a Bradley freshman and her 381 digs are third all-time by a BU rookie. In fact, Thompson is just the sixth player in program history with season totals of 290 kills and 380 or more digs and first Brave to hit both those numbers in the same season since Jenny Pavlas in 1997. She has been named the MVC Freshman of the Week three consecutive weeks and a league-high five times this season to become just the fifth five-time MVC Freshman of the Week selection in Valley history.

Seniors Erica Haslag and Yavianliz Rosado both hit historic milestones during last Saturday's match at Indiana State. Haslag notched her 1,500th career kill in the outing against the Sycamores, while Rosado recorded the 2,000th dig of her collegiate career.

Haslag had a season-best 28 kills against Indiana State to tie her own school record for kills in a four-set match under the 25-point set format, which she set last year against Navy. With 1,522 career kills, Haslag is 45 kills from breaking into the top 20 in MVC history in career kills.

In addition to collecting her 2,000th career dig, Rosado pushed her season dig total to 526, which ranks sixth among Bradley season marks and she is the only player in program history to have two seasons with 500 or more digs. Rosado is 11th in Bradley history with 1,170 digs as a Brave and is just 30 digs from becoming the eighth Brave with at least 1,200 career digs.

Following the weekend home stand, Bradley hits the road for the final time during the 2018 regular-season and will open a two-match Valley road swing Friday, Nov. 9 at Valparaiso.

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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 Returns Home To Host #25 UNI & Drake

Players Mentioned

#3 Erica Haslag

#1 Yavianliz Rosado

#6 Hannah Thompson

Players Mentioned

#3 Erica Haslag

#1 Yavianliz Rosado

#6 Hannah Thompson