Volleyball Hosts I-74 Rival Illinois St. Friday On Senior Night

Duane Zehr

Volleyball 11/15/2018 10:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball will have a chance to play spoiler on Senior Night, with the Braves wrapping up the 2018 regular-season schedule by hosting I-74 rival Illinois State in a 7 p.m. match Friday at Renaissance Coliseum.

Following Friday's matchup with the league-leading Redbirds (24-5 overall, 16-1 MVC), Bradley (22-7 overall, 12-5 MVC) will recognize this year's senior class. Illinois State enters the contest with a 12-match win streak and has a chance to earn at least a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title Friday night.

The Braves have already locked up third in the Valley standings after pulling out a pair of five-set road wins at Valparaiso and Loyola last weekend. The third-place finish is the best league showing for Bradley since 2001 (3rd) and the Braves are the first team in league history to finish among the top three in the conference standings a year removed from a last-place finish. In fact, the 2018 Braves are just the third team in Valley history to have a nine-win improvement in conference play and just the second since the Valley went to an 18-game conference schedule in 1996. The last team to do so was Bradley in 1999.

Friday's match will be available on ESPN3 and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for the tilt.

Bradley is one of just two teams in the country to improve its win total from last by at least 12 games through matches of Nov. 12, joining Stetson (+13). BU's 12-win improvement compared to last season is the largest for the Braves since following up a 7-23 campaign in 1987 with a 22-15 record in 1988.

One of seven seniors who will be recognized Friday night, libero Yavianliz Rosado broke her own season digs record last weekend. After a school-record 644 digs in 2017 during her first season as a Brave, Rosado owns a league-high and new school season record 645 digs in 2018. Her dig total ranks 14th among MVC season marks and is the fourth-best total in the nation this season. Rosado has averaged 7.00 digs per set in the last four matches, moving into seventh in career digs at Bradley (1,289) despite playing just 61 matches as a Brave.

Senior Erica Haslag was named MVC Player of the Week on Monday after a pair of 20-kill outings in last week's victories. Haslag enters the final home match of her career with 1,606 career kills to rank 17th in MVC history. Her 461 kills in 2018 are eighth among Bradley season marks and she has had 20 or more kills in five of the last six matches. Haslag is 17 kills from moving up three spots on the MVC career kills list into 14th.

In addition to Haslag and Rosado, seniors Hanna Alexander, Abby Ihrke, Alissa Schovanec, Sarah Shaw and Allison Turner will be recognized following Friday's contest. With at least two matches remaining, Ihrke sits 30 digs from breaking into Bradley's career top 10 in the category.

Freshman Hannah Thompson now owns the Bradley records for both kills (335) and digs (455) by a freshman, with her dig total ranking 10th among school season marks. Her 455 digs are the most by a Brave other than a libero since 1985 and she joined Bradley Hall of Fame member Stacey Besjak (1985) as the only players to collect 330 kills and 450 or more digs in a season. In fact, Thompson is the first MVC player to reach those numbers since UNI's Amy Braun in 2012.

Junior setter Hannah Angeli has been on a bit of role since the season's first meeting with Illinois State, averaging 1.24 kills, 10.86 assists, 0.24 aces and 2.76 digs per set over the last nine matches. Angeli has turned in double-doubles in five of the last six matches and 11 overall for the year to push her career double-double total of 33 among the top 10 in Bradley history. She is the first Bradley player with back-to-back seasons with 1,000 assists since Ashley Vance (2003, 2004 & 2005). Angeli is looking to become the first player to lead the team in both assists and aces in back-to-back seasons since Sam Hardwick in 2000 & 2001.

Bradley will be making its first MVC Tournament appearance since 2013 and will be the #3 seed for next week's event in Springfield, Mo. The Braves will face either Loyola, Missouri State or Drake in an opening round match Thursday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m.

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