AMES, Iowa -- Bradley forced a deciding fifth set with a 6-0 run to close the fourth and hit .333 as a team in the final frame to complete a 26-24, 21-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-13 victory over Bowling Green in the opening round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship Thursday afternoon in Ames, Iowa.
Senior Erica Haslag collected a season-high 29 kills, including seven in the fifth set, while fellow senior Yavianliz Rosado finished one dig short of matching her school single-match record set earlier this month with 41 digs to help highlight the victory. Freshman Hannah Thompson added her 20th double-double of the year with 13 kills and 22 digs and junior setter Hannah Angeli had a double-double of her own (13th of the year) with 46 assists and 20 digs.
Bradley (24-8 overall), which is making the first post-season appearance in program history, advances to the second round of the NIVC and will play the winner of tonight's matchup between host Iowa State and Missouri Valley Conference rival Drake Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum.
In the opening set, the Braves trailed 20-18, before taking control of the frame with a 6-1 run. Bradley rattled off four consecutive points behind kills from Haslag, Sara Maddox and Alissa Schovanec along with an Angeli ace to go in front 22-20. Bradley held set point at 24-21 on a Rachel Pranger kill, but Bowling Green (19-12 overall) rallied to tie things up at 24-24. Thompson broke the tie with her fourth kill of the set and a Rosado ace gave BU the opening stanza 26-24. Rosado tallied 13 of her 41 digs in the first.
Bowling Green forced 10 Bradley errors in the second and pulled even in the match with a 25-21 victory as the Braves hit .080 in the set. Bradley's offensive struggles carried over to the third set with the Braves committing another 10 attack errors. Haslag carried the load in the third for Bradley with eight kills on 16 attacks, while hitting at a .438 clip. Bowling Green held off a late rally attempt by the Braves to win the third 25-23.
Bradley had its season hanging in the balance in the fourth set with Bowling Green owning a 20-17 lead. The Falcons followed a BU timeout with an attack error and a Maggie Revell kill cut the deficit to one at 20-19. Haslag, who added another five kills in the fourth, chased a Bowling Green point with a kill to start a string of six consecutive points by the Braves. Bowling Green called its first timeout after Bradley pulled even at 21-21 on an attack error and a Thompson kill gave Bradley a 22-21 advantage.
Another Bowling Green error pushed the BU lead to 23-21 and the Braves held set point at 24-21 on one of Angeli's four aces on the day. Haslag put the finishing touches on a 25-21 Bradley win with her 22nd kill of the night to force the deciding fifth set.
Haslag took over in the fifth set, tallying seven of Bradley's nine kills in the frame. Bradley jumped out to an early 7-3 lead thanks to four kills from Haslag and eventually pushed the lead to as many as five points at 9-4. With the Braves leading 12-7, Bowling Green made one more push. The Falcons scored the next four points and went on a 6-1 run to tie things up at 13-13. Haslag buried her season-best 29th kill of the night to break the tie, however. Angeli's fourth ace of the contest sealed the 15-13 win for Bradley as the Braves improved to 5-3 in five-set matches in 2018.
Haslag moved up three spots on the MVC's career kills list into 10th and now has 1,675 career kills. She hit .287 in the match, but hit .383 in the final three sets with 20 kills and just two errors. Haslag also matched her 2017 season kill total at 530 to give her two of the top three single season kill totals in school history.
In addition to collecting just the third 40-dig performance in school history, Rosado pushed her season dig total to 744 which is now third among MVC season marks. She also moved into second in career digs at Bradley (1,388), passing Jenny Pavlas despite playing just 64 matches as a Brave and is 50 digs from breaking the school career mark.
Bradley collected 119 digs with senior Abby Ihrke helping highlight the defensive efforts with 17 digs as she broke into the top 10 in career digs at BU.
