First-year Bradley Volleyball Head Coach Alicia Williams picked up her first win as head coach of the Braves in dramatic fashion as BU dropped the first two sets to Kansas City before rallying for a 15-25, 25-27, 25-12, 25-23, 15-13 victory over the Roos Saturday at Renaissance Coliseum in the final match of the 2022 CEFCU Invitational.
Bradley (1-2 overall) picked up its first victory of the young season with the five-set win as the Braves rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a match for the first time since Nov. 10, 2018 at Loyola.Junior Maike Bertens Deckart collected a match and season-high 19 kills to pace four Bradley players in double figures in kills. Karagan Coggin and Abby Johnson each added 11 kills and freshman Kendall Minta notched 10 kills along with four blocks in her first career start.
The Braves had four players with 10 or more digs, including freshman Kaitlynn Peterson who had a team-best 16 digs to go with seven kills in her first career appearance. Senior Serena Sparks had 13 digs of her own as she became the 19th player in program history to collect 1,000 career digs.
The deciding fifth set was close throughout with neither team leading by more than two points in the frame. Back-to-back kills by Peterson and Bertens Deckart broke a 10-10 tie and the Bradley lead was 13-11 after a Coggin kill. Following a Kansas City (1-2 overall) kill, Bradley held match point on the 19th kill of the night by Bertens Deckart at 14-12. Raina Smith kept the Roos alive at 14-13, however, with a kill before Minta answered with her 10th kill of the match to seal the 15-13 victory.
Bradley, which was playing its second five-set match of the day, never trailed in either the third of fourth sets after Kansas City took the opening two stanzas.
The Braves hit a blistering .452 in the third set to run away with a 25-12 victory. Bertens Deckart had six kills with no errors on nine swings to help highlight the third-set victory, while Johnson added five of her 11 kills in the third set.
In the fourth, Minta had three kills to highlight a 5-1 spurt that was capped by a Doga Topcicek ace as Bradley grabbed a 17-13 lead. Kansas City rallied to eventually pull even at 23-23. A big kill from Johnson gave the Braves set point at 24-23, however, and a Peterson block capped a 25-23 victory as Bradley pushed the match to a deciding fifth set.
Kansas City hit .500 in the first set, claiming the opener 25-15.
In the second set, Bradley led by as many as eight (16-8) before the Roos rallied. The Braves held set point at 24-22 after a Coggin ace, only to have Kansas City fight off three BU set points. With the score tied at 25-25, Georgia Mullins gave the Roos a 26-25 edge with a kill and Kansas City's Odyssey Warren locked up a 27-25 win with one of her team-high 16 kills in the contest as Bradley found itself in an 0-2 hole.
Bertens Deckart was named to the CEFCU All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.00 kills per set and hitting .372 in her first three matches as a Brave. In Saturday's two contests, she averaged 3.40 kills per set while attacking at .406 clip.
Bradley returns to action next weekend, heading to West Lafayette, Ind., for the Reamer Club Xtra Special where the Braves will open play Friday with a 9 a.m. match at #13 Purdue.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up