Bradley University Athletics issued the following announcement on Sept. 22
Bradley Volleyball will open Missouri Valley Conference play on the road for the second consecutive year with the Braves facing Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Friday, before closing out the first weekend of league action Saturday at Drake. Both matches will be available on ESPN3 and will have a 6 p.m. first serves.
Earning a share of the CEFCU Classic title to wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule, Bradley (4-7 overall) will face an out-of-state opponent to start Valley play for the first time since opening the 2016 conference slate at Indiana State.
Bradley will play back-to-back Valley openers on the road for the first time dating back to the 2004 & 2005 campaigns. The last time the Braves kicked off a league slate in the state of Iowa was 2014 and Friday's match in Cedar Falls marks the first time BU will face Northern Iowa in a conference opener dating back to 2012.
Bradley split the regular-season series with Northern Iowa (5-8 overall) last year, snapping a 29-match losing streak series against the Panthers with a five-set home win back in March. BU's last seven victories in the series have been at home.
Bradley and Drake (5-3 overall) have split the last six matchups in the series with the teams alternating regular-season series sweeps each of the last two years. The Bulldogs won a pair of four-set matches last year in Des Moines, after Bradley took both matchups in 2019. Drake holds a 40-32 advantage in the series that dates back to 1982 and the Bulldogs are 23-13 in matches against BU played in Des Moines, Iowa.
Bradley boasts a combined 14 MVC road victories over the last three years after the Braves won a total of 14 Valley road contests from the start of the 2005 campaign through 2017. BU's 14 MVC road wins over that stretch are fourth most in the league behind Northern Iowa (21), Illinois State (15) and Loyola (15). Bradley's last three-year stretch with 14 or more MVC road wins was 2001-03 (14). Only seven senior classes at Bradley were a part of as many as 14 conference road wins with the last in 2004 (15). The school record for MVC road wins in a four-year stretch is 21 (1999-02). The Braves have split their last 30 MVC road matches dating back to a win at Southern Illinois on Oct. 21, 2017 that snapped a 33-match MVC road losing streak.
If history is any indication, expect a defensive struggle Saturday when Bradley faces Drake. Six of the last seven meetings have gone to at least four sets and at least one team has tallied 90 or more digs in five of the last six meetings. In fact, the Braves have averaged 25.0 digs per set against Drake over the last six matchups in the series, while the Bulldogs have collected 24.6 digs per set in those same contests. Bradley is 34th nationally in digs per set this season, while Drake is 52nd. Senior Hannah Thompson has averaged 5.00 digs per set in her career against Drake.
Bradley closed out the non-conference portion of the schedule with back-to-back five-set matches and the Braves have played a total of three five setters this year after playing just one during the 2020-21 campaign. While Bradley is 1-2 in five-set matches this year, the Braves own an 11-9 record in its last 20 five-set contests dating back to 2018. Bradley's five-set victory against Northern Colorado (Sept. 17) was BU's first victory when trailing two sets to one since topping Bowling Green in five sets in the first round of the 2018 NIVC.
The Braves return to Renaissance Coliseum next week, with Bradley playing seven of the next nine matches at home starting Friday, Oct. 1 with a 6 p.m. home contest against Southern Illinois.
Original source can be found here.
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