Volleyball Travels To Chicago For UIC Invitational

Duane Zehr

Volleyball 9/12/2019 10:43:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Fresh off claiming the team title at the 2019 CEFCU Invitational, Bradley Volleyball will look for its first wins away from home with the Braves heading to Chicago for the UIC Invitational Friday and Saturday at the Flames Athletic Center.

Bradley (2-4 overall) will play a non-conference match in Chicago for the first time since opening the 2014 campaign at the DePaul Invitational. The Braves open tournament play Friday night with a 7 p.m. contest against tournament-host UIC (6-1 overall) and will play a pair of matches Saturday. Bradley owns a 16-11 lead in the all-time series with UIC after winning a pair of matches against the Flames in Peoria in 2017. Friday's match marks the first road match in the series for the Braves since 2008.

Saturday's outings include a 10 a.m. matchup with first-time-opponent Sacramento State (3-4 overall) along with a 4 p.m. tilt with Murray State (2-4 overall). Bradley and Murray State have split two previous meetings with the Braves sweeping the Racers in Murray, Ky., in 2017 in the last meeting between the two squads.

Friday's match against UIC will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all three weekend contests.

Bradley won its first two home matches of 2019 to extend its non-conference home win streak to 12 matches before suffering a four-set loss to DePaul Saturday. The 12-match non-conference home win streak was the longest for the Braves dating back to a 16-match non-conference home win streak between the 1996 and 2001 campaigns. The Braves are 16-2 in their last 18 home contests and Bradley is 13-4 at home against non-conference opponents under head coach Carol Price-Torok.

After ranking second on the team in both kills and digs last year, sophomore Hannah Thompson leads Bradley in both categories through six matches and owns a team-best four double-doubles. Thompson is one of 11 players in the nation to lead their squad in both kills and digs through matches of Sept. 8. In fact, Thompson is one of only four players in the nation to have at least 60 kills and 90 digs through matches of Sept. 8. Joining her on that list are Loyola's Quinn Spieker, CeCe Madison of Oral Roberts and Corin Evans from Stephen F. Austin. Thompson earned CEFCU Invitational All-Tournament honors after helping Bradley earn the tournament title with a 2-1 record. Thompson, who is averaging 3.29 kills and 4.38 digs per set on the year, averaged team highs of 3.64 kills and 3.73 digs per set last weekend.

Bradley entered last Friday night's match against Oakland with eight aces on the season, before serving up a season-best 10 aces against the Golden Grizzlies. The Braves followed that up with nine aces in Saturday's contest against DePaul giving Bradley consecutive outings with nine or more aces for the first time since Sept. 2009. Senior Hannah Angeli had three aces Friday vs. Oakland and matched a career-high with four aces Saturday against DePaul. Angeli has led Bradley in aces each of the last two years and is looking to become the first Brave to pace the squad in aces in three consecutive seasons dating back to Lindsay Stalzer (2003-05).

Four of Bradley's first six matches have been against squads with winning records through Sunday. In fact, BU's four losses have come against teams which have a combined 19-6 (.760) mark entering the week. Overall, Bradley's opponents are 25-13 (.658) on the year.

Following the weekend trip to Chicago, the Braves host the second of two home tournaments next weekend with Bradley welcoming South Dakota and Northern Illinois to Renaissance Coliseum for the CEFCU Classic Sept. 20 & 21.

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Players Mentioned

#9 Hannah Angeli: S; 6' 0"; Senior

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

Players Mentioned

#9 Hannah Angeli
: 6' 0"; Senior
: S

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

Volleyball Travels To Chicago For UIC Invitational

Players Mentioned

#9 Hannah Angeli

#6 Hannah Thompson

Players Mentioned

#9 Hannah Angeli

#6 Hannah Thompson