Peoria, Ill. - The season sure has flown by. Bradley Volleyball (9-16, 5-8 MVC) welcomes Drake and Northern Iowa over the final home weekend of the 2022 season. Bradley is coming off of a critical standings-battle win over Missouri State, and having played winning volleyball over the entire month of October, adding wins against I-74 rival Illinois State, and a weekend sweep against Evansville and Indiana State.

SENIOR WEEKEND LINKS
Watch Bradley vs. Drake
Tickets vs. Drake
Watch Bradley vs. UNI
Tickets vs. UNI
Live Stats (Both Matches)

ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
The Bulldogs are in an intense battle of their own. At (11-2) in MVC play, they sit just two games behind the Northern Iowa Panthers. 

Drake won the last meeting, a 3-0 sweep in Des Moines on October 8th. In that match, the Braves hit under .100 in the last two sets. Drake's attack was right where it needed to be, getting double-figure matches from Haley Bush (13 kills) and Macy Daufeldt (11 kills). The Braves attack, although lesser in number, was balanced. Silan Demirkol (8 kills), Kendall Minta (5 kills), and Doga Topcicek (4 kills) were among the leaderboard. 

The Bulldogs service game also proved key, with the hosts doing just more than doubling Bradley's total at 9-4. That was led by five aces from Addison Beagle, one of the top seven servers in the Valley statistically. 

Bradley battled in a close 27-25 opening set loss, but Drake took control in the final two frames, winning the sets by margins of 10 and 14 points.

ABOUT THE PANTHERS
Stop the beast. That's what Bradley will try to do on Senior Night come Saturday. See, the Panthers enter the weekend an unblemished (13-0) in MVC play, and they also have a heavy stranglehold on series history, holding a 70-12 mark, including going 30-9 in Peoria. 

While Northern Iowa won the regular season meeting in October of this fall, the Braves did win the last meeting in Peoria, defeating the Panthers in five sets. In this season's meeting, Bradley was not able to find a rhythm attacking, with a .188 hitting percentage in the first set being the match's best. Once again, the numbers were lower than the opposition, but the attack remained balanced. 

Perhaps two statistics leap out when looking at the final numbers. Bradley was unable to pick up an ace (4-0 UNI), and the Northern Iowa block was top-notch, tallying 15 to Bradley's three. 

In the October 2022 loss, Doga Topcicek just missed a double-double with the stat line of eight kills and 10 digs. 

THANK YOU SENIORS
Bradley will honor four seniors following Saturday's match against Northern Iowa: Raeann Bergman, Karagan Coggin, Carlee Camlin, and Serena Sparks.