MATCH STATS
- #18 Northern Iowa def. Bradley, 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-19)
- Northern Iowa improves to 21-6, 11-2 Missouri Valley; Bradley drops to 9-18, 2-11 Missouri Valley
- Peoria, Illinois
- Attendance: 369
- Box score
PEORIA, Ill. – After a five-set heartbreaker to Illinois State on Friday in Normal, #18 UNI rebounded with a sweep of Bradley in Peoria on Sunday afternoon (25-16, 25-22, 25-19). UNI’s defense was the key, as the Panthers dug 76 balls and blocked 5 more.
Northern Iowa was led offensively by junior middle blocker Piper Thomas, who had a match-high 16 kills and hit .583 (16-2-24) on the afternoon. Karlie Taylor had the lone double-double for the Panthers with 13 kills and 13 digs. Libero Kendyl Sorge dug a team-high 21 balls in the three sets, while Bri Weber added 18 digs and defensive specialist Taylor Hedges added 12 more. Senior setter Heather Hook paced the attack with 43 assists.
Bradley was led offensively, once again, by Erica Haslag with 15 kills and added 9 digs and 3 blocks for the Braves. Haslag’s 15 kills moved her into 7th place all-time for single-season kills with 451. Libero Yavianliz Rosado reset her own digs-in-three-sets record, scooping a match-high 27 digs. She had just set the previous record on Friday night with 26 against Drake. Rosado is now in second place on the all-time single-season digs list for Bradley with 563. She needs 44 more digs to set the all-time single-season digs record, which was set in 1985 by Stacey Besjak. Setter Hannah Angeli had the Braves’ lone double-double with 24 assists and 12 digs. It was her 19th double-double on the season. That marked the most double-doubles by a Brave in a single season since 2005.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy of Northern Iowa Athletics
PEORIA, Illinois – The University of Northern Iowa volleyball squad bounced back with a 3-0 sweep at Bradley on Sunday.
UNI (21-6 overall, 11-2 MVC) used a staunch defensive effort to put away Bradley (9-18 overall, 2-11 MVC) by scores of 25-16, 25-22, 25-19.
UNI registered 76 digs, including 21 from junior libero Kendyl Sorge. Sophomore Karlie Taylor posted her 18th double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs against the Braves.
The Panther offense was paced by junior middle blocker Piper Thomas. Thomas notched 16 kills (.583 hitting percentage) in the three-set win.
Courtesy of Bradley Athletics
PEORIA, Ill. — For the second time in three days junior Yavianliz Rosado broke her own school record for digs in a three-set match, collecting 27 and fellow junior Erica Haslag added 15 kills to pace Bradley offensively but 25th-ranked Northern Iowa held off the Braves 25-16, 25-22, 25-19 Sunday afternoon at Renaissance Coliseum.
Rosado had 26 digs Friday in a three-set contest against Drake only to follow it up with 27 digs Sunday in Bradley’s first home match against a ranked team since 2011. The 27 digs pushed Rosado’s season dig total to 563, which ranks second among Bradley season totals behind the school record of 606 digs set by Stacey Besjak in 1985.
Haslag was the only Bradley player with more than six kills Sunday, finishing with a team-best 15 to go with nine digs and three blocks. She now has 451 kills on the year for the seventh-best season total at Bradley. Sophomore Hannah Angeli collected 24 assists and 12 digs for her 19th of the year for the most by a Brave since 2005.
Northern Iowa (21-6 overall, 11-2 MVC) slowed Bradley (9-18 overall, 2-11 MVC) down in the first set with 28 digs and limited the Braves to an .065 hitting percentage in the opener. A 6-0 UNI run midway through the stanza gave the Panther control of what was a two-point contest at 12-10 following an Angeli kill. Northern Iowa went on to take the first set 25-16 despite eight digs from Rosado and four Bradley blocks.
Haslag was limited to just two kills in the first set, but rebounded with seven kills in the second. The Braves jumped out to a 6-2 lead and later owned a 14-12 advantage after aKathryn Graf kill. Northern Iowa answered with three consecutive points to open a 7-1 spurt which put the Panthers in front 19-15. Back-to-back Haslag kills and an Angeli ace pulled Bradley within two points at 23-21 and the Braves held off a Northern Iowa match point at 24-21 with a block by Graf and Haslag. Moriah Johnson found the floor with a kill for UNI, however, to cap a 25-22 Panthers victory in the second set.
UNI notched 27 digs in the third set, using another run midway through the frame to pull away. With Bradley trailing 11-8, UNI rattled off three consecutive points on a pair of BU errors and a Karlie Taylor kill to extend the lead to six (14-8). The Panthers later pushed the advantage to seven (17-10) and never let the Braves get closer than five points down the stretch as UNI completed the sweep with a 25-19 third-set win.
Haslag added six more kills in the third, while Rosado had an impressive 14 digs in the final set. Bradley posted a 31-27 advantage in digs in the third set and 70 digs in the contest as the Braves held the Panther to a .230 hitting percentage (45 points below the team’s average in MVC play).
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