Braves Face Valparaiso In MVC Tournament Opening Round

Josh Schwam

Volleyball 11/26/2019 3:12:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball will be making consecutive trips to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament for the first time in nearly two decades with the fourth-seeded Braves taking on #5 seed Valparaiso Thursday in an opening round matchup in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Capping a fourth-place regular-season league finish with back-to-back home wins, Bradley (15-14 overall, 11-7 MVC) will face Valparaiso in a 5 p.m. contest Thursday at Northern Iowa's McLeod Center in the first match of the three-day tournament to decide the Valley's automatic spot in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Valparaiso (13-19 overall, 8-10 MVC) won two of its final three matches, with the lone setback against regular-season champion UNI during that stretch, to finish fifth in the conference standings.

Every match of the 2019 MVC Tournament will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats.

Bradley and Valpo split the regular-season series with each team sweeping its home match and the all-time series is knotted at 10-10. The Braves have won three of the last four meetings, sweeping the Crusaders in 2018. The teams have split the six meetings since Valparaiso joined the MVC for the 2017 season and Thursday's match will mark the first Valley Tournament matchup in the series. Bradley is 3-1 in neutral site matches against the Crusaders with the last one at Loyola in 1994.

Bradley is making its 12th MVC Tournament appearance and the Braves will be playing in back-to-back Valley Championships for the first time since 2001 and 2002. In search of its first MVC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2002, Bradley has advanced to the semis a total of five times (2002, 2001, 1999, 1994 & 1985). The Braves are the first private school to post consecutive top-four league finishes since Creighton in 2011 & 2012.

One of the youngest teams in the MVC, Bradley has relied heavily on freshmen and sophomores in 2019, with an underclassmen leading the team in kills, assists, digs and blocks. In fact, the sophomore class alone has combined for 62 percent of Bradley's kills and almost 55 percent of the team's digs. The freshmen and sophomores have combined to average 10.18 kills and 13.51 digs per set this season. Bradley has gotten over 70 percent of its total kills (80%), digs (72%) and blocks (79%) from underclassmen this fall.

Bradley's fourth-place MVC regular-season finish marked the first time since 2001 and 2002 the Braves finished among the top four in the league standings in back-to-back years. With a 15-14 overall record, Bradley will have consecutive years of .500 or better records since those same seasons. In fact, the Braves have 11 or more Valley wins in back-to-back years for just the second time in program history and the 24 league wins between 2018 (13) & 2019 (11) are one short of the most in a two-year stretch in program history. In the 10 years leading into last season's 13-5 record and third-place league finish, Bradley had a combined 28 MVC wins.

Sophomore Hannah Thompson turned in two more double-doubles over the weekend, pushing her season total to 23. Thompson's 23 double-doubles tied the Bradley season record originally set by Jenny Pavlas in 1997. Thompson recently joined another exclusive group, however, becoming just the second player in MVC history to have two seasons with 350 or more kills and at least 500 digs. The only player in league history to reach both marks in consecutive seasons, Thompson joined Illinois State's Chris Rehor (1985 & 1988) as the only Valley players to reach those marks in two different seasons.

The winner of Thursday's opening-round match between #4 Bradley and #5 Valparaiso will advance to Friday's 5 p.m. semifinal against tournament-host and MVC regular-season champion Northern Iowa.

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Players Mentioned

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

Players Mentioned

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

Braves Face Valparaiso In MVC Tournament Opening Round

Players Mentioned

#6 Hannah Thompson

Players Mentioned

#6 Hannah Thompson