The women’s volleyball team had a decent outing last weekend as they played southern Illinois and Evansville at the renaissance coliseum. Early in the first set, Bradley dug out a tipped hit to which the Haslag responded by splitting a block for a kill. Point braves. Later in the set, Livaudais fought off a tip and gave Kathryn Graf the opportunity to roll shot the ball to the end line. Too easy. Position over power was the story of Haslag’s night as she placed the pill in an ideal spot for a much-needed kill. With SIU on the attack, Ihrke made the dig look easy, and cave put a dent in the court with that laser of a hit she had. Unfortunately, the braves would fall in 3 sets and give SIU its 12th victory in the hard fought matchup.
Turning the page to Saturday’s matchup, Evansville was hot on the attack until Erin Olson went mrazek and dug it out to which the braves recovered and down balled it over. Again, the purple aces blasted it towards the braves but it fell out of play. Gotta get it in the big square kiddo.
With the purple aces serving, the lady braves dug the ball up and put it on a solver platter for Haslag to bring down the pain without mercy.
Again with the aces at the line, Rymer deposits the bumped up serve to Olson and from Olson to cave. The braves take home the Dubya over the purple aces in 3 sets and win an oversized foam finger with it. Nonetheless, the braves go 1-1 over Friday and Saturday and will suit up this weekend against Wichita and Missouri state. Both games will be broadcasted at 7:00pm on ESPN3, the valley.
The women’s golf team had a solid performance at the Missouri valley conference preview this Monday and Tuesday. In a 14 team invitational, the lady braves took 6th place. Freshmen Taylor Ledwein took 6th place in individual standings as she closed out the outing with a four-over 220. Frankie Saban also set a career best for herself as she posted a 73 on Monday. The lady braves will be back at it again at the tee next week for the rocket classic in Ohio.
Speaking of golf, the men’s team took it home at the Zach Johnson Invitational as they finished first out of 9 teams. Junior Zach Jewell had the low round of the day for Bradley on Tuesday with a two-over 74. Overachiever Drake Bushong won the individual title by a 3 stroke lead to bring back the medal for Bradley. The men’s team will close out the fall season at NIU next week.
The Bradley hockey team had a monster series against northwestern last weekend and boy did they show up! Despite giving up the first goal of the game, the braves rebounded by scoring 7 consecutive goals. The very physical game appeared to take a toll on Bradley as Austin Dempski left the 2nd period only to return in the 3rd period and score a goal to add salt to Northwestern’s wounds. Saturday’s game was a more riveting performance as the braves trailed 2-0 into the third period. However, defensemen Matt Daury and Cody Esposito lit the candle less than 30 seconds apart to tie the game up, forcing overtime and a shootout. In the shootout, Joe Norton lifted a shot over the stick side of the northwestern goaltender for the braves to bring home the win break out the brooms and the Zamboni, braves sweep the series.