Bradley Volleyball Hosts CEFCU Invitational

Volleyball 9/5/2019 9:46:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After opening the 2019 season last weekend in Texas, Bradley Volleyball kicks off the home portion of the schedule this weekend by hosting the 2019 CEFCU Invitational Friday and Saturday with Belmont, DePaul and Oakland joining the Braves in the two-day tournament.

The 2019 CEFCU Invitational is the first of two home tournaments on the schedule for Bradley, which will play 14 home contests this season for the lightest home slate since 2016 (9).

Tournament-play gets underway Friday at 10 a.m. with DePaul facing Oakland, while the Braves take the court at 12:30 p.m. for the first matchup with Belmont since a four-set BU home victory in 2005. Belmont and DePaul square off Friday at 4:30 p.m. with the first day's action concluding with a 7 p.m. contest between Bradley and Oakland. The Braves opened the 2005 home schedule with a four-set victory against Oakland in the only previous meeting.

Saturday's action is slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. with Belmont facing Oakland. Bradley and DePaul play at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon to conclude the tournament. The Braves own a 14-11 lead in the all-time series with the Blue Demons with Saturday's contest marking just the fifth overall meeting and second home match in the series since 2002.

All three of Bradley's matches will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats throughout the tournament.

The Braves have won nine consecutive home non-conference matches after going 6-0 at Renaissance Coliseum in non-conference contests during a 14-1 home campaign in 2018. Overall, Bradley is 61-36 (.629) when hosting an in-season tournament after last year's 6-0 mark. The Braves are 11-3 at home against non-conference opponents under fourth-year head coach Carol Price-Torok.

Bradley has hosted at least one tournament in 12 of the last 13 years and 16 of the last 18 seasons. In fact, this year's pair of home tournaments will give Bradley 20 home tournaments in the last 15 years and mark the 13th & 14th home tournaments in the 10-year history of Renaissance Coliseum.

After earning MVC Freshman of the Year honors in 2018, outside hitter Hannah Thompson has had a strong start to her sophomore campaign. Thompson, who had 20 double-doubles last year, turned in her first of the 2019 season Saturday against UTSA, finishing with 15 kills and 19 digs. Thompson, who is averaging a team-best 5.10 digs per set through three matches, had 15 kills with no errors in the outing against the Roadrunners. Her 15 kills were the second most without an error in program history behind only Kelsey Cave's 19-kill outing without an attack error at Indiana State on Sept. 16, 2016. Thompson is averaging 2.90 kills per set through three matches.

Sophomore Rachel Pranger is averaging a team-best 3.00 kills per set after the opening weekend of play, collecting nine or more kills in each of the first three outings. Pranger reached double figures in kills a total of four times in 2018 and had nine or more kills in five matches as a freshman. The Braves were 8-2 last year when she had at least five kills.

After ranking second in the nation in digs per set at 19.76 in 2018, Bradley has picked up where it left off and averaged an impressive 20.50 digs per set in three matches at last weekend's Doubletree Invitational. Freshman Serena Sparks has served as the team's libero in each of the last eight sets and has averaged 4.75 digs per set in that role.

Bradley follows up the weekend home tournament with a trip to Chicago for the UIC Invitational Sept. 13 & 14 where the Braves will face Murray State and first-time opponent Sacramento State in addition to tournament-host Illinois-Chicago.

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Players Mentioned

#21 Rachel Pranger: OH; 5' 11"; Sophomore

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

#1 Serena Sparks: L/DS; 5' 2"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#21 Rachel Pranger
: 5' 11"; Sophomore
: OH

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

#1 Serena Sparks
: 5' 2"; Freshman
: L/DS

Bradley Volleyball Hosts CEFCU Invitational

Players Mentioned

#21 Rachel Pranger

#6 Hannah Thompson

#1 Serena Sparks

Players Mentioned

#21 Rachel Pranger

#6 Hannah Thompson

#1 Serena Sparks