MATCH STATS
- (RV) Missouri State def. Bradley, 3-2 (25-17, 20-25, 19-25, 25-14, 19-17)
- Missouri State improves to 17-5, 9-0 Missouri Valley; Bradley drops to 8-16, 1-9 Missouri Valley
- Springfield, Missouri
- Attendance: 1226
- Box score
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Despite four match points for Bradley in the fifth set and a career night for Bradley junior outside hitter and Missouri native Erica Haslag, Missouri State extended their MVC match winning streak to 25 and won their 10th straight match overall in a five-set thriller at the Hammons Student Center Friday evening. Each of the four match points were fought off in epic rallies, at 14-12 (Bradley hitting error), 14-13 (MSU kill), 15-14 (MSU kill), and 17-16 (MSU kill).
Missouri State’s Lily Johnson had her fourth career 20/20 night, with 22 kills and 21 digs. Senior middle blocker Lynsey Wright had an impressive attack line, with 16 kills and hitting .314 to go along with a match-high-tying 5 blocks. Aubrey Cheffey added 12 kills and 5 blocks of her own. Daniele Messa earned the only other double-double (besides Johnson) on the evening with 48 assists and 14 digs. Libero Emily Butters had a team-high 24 digs. Brianne Dixon scooped a career-high 19 digs to help the Bear defense.
Bradley gave Missouri State all it could handle in the potential upset bid. Erica Haslag finished with a career-high 30 kills to lead all attackers. The 30 kills marked the most by a Bradley player since 2005. Haslag also passed the 1000 career kill mark in the third set, the 14th player in Bradley history to earn the feat. She finished her double-double effort with 17 digs. Jamie Livaudais also finished in double-digit kills with 17 and hitting an impressive .364 against the MVC’s top defensive squad. Kathryn Graf rounded out the double-digit kill party for the Braves, finishing with 12 kills and 5 blocks. Libero Yavianliz Rosado narrowly missed a double-double with a match-high 27 digs and added 9 assists to the offense. Setter Hannah Angeli contributed her own double-double with 57 assists and 18 digs on the night.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy of Missouri State Athletics
SPRINGFIELD — Missouri State fought off four Bradley match points Friday evening to escape with a 3-2 victory and maintain first-place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings, extending its win streak to 10 consecutive matches overall and 25 straight in the MVC.
The Bears (17-5, 9-0) won the final two sets en route to a 25-17, 20-25, 19-25, 25-14, 19-17 victory, and are now off to the second-best MVC start in school history behind the 2003 club, which won its first 15 conference matches.
Missouri State had a pair of 8-1 runs in the first set and held the Braves (8-16, 1-9) to a .000 hitting efficiency for a 1-0 lead, but watched Bradley turn the tables and pile up 33 kills on .302 hitting over the next two periods to get one set away from victory.
The Bears rolled to a .382 attack efficiency in the fourth set on the strength of seven kills from Lily Johnson and five more from Aubrey Cheffey, and carried the momentum into the final period for an 8-4 lead on a Johnson ace.
The Braves came charging back, taking their first lead at 11-10 and gaining match point at 14-12 after Erica Haslag swatted her 29th and 30th kills of the match in succession. Cheffey’s kill tied the set at 14 and Johnson followed for a 15-all tie before Cheffey and Mikaela Mosquera earned a block for a 16-15 lead. The Braves countered to lead 17-16 when Mosquera scored the tying kill, Cheffey followed for match point, and Lynsey Wright teamed with Cambree Villarreal for the winning block.
Johnson led the Bears with 22 kills and 21 digs for her fourth career 20/20 match, Wright hit .314 with 16 kills and Cheffey added 12 winners. Brianne Dixon lifted a career-high 19 digs and Emily Butters finished with 24.
MSU matched a season high with 14 blocks and hit .232 compared to .182 for the Braves. BU owned leads of 69-67 in kills and 107-97 in total digs.
Courtesy of Bradley Athletics
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – With Halloween right around the corner, Bradley Volleyball put a scare into league-leading Missouri State after taking two of the first three sets, but the Bears rallied to top the Braves 25-17, 20-25, 19-25, 25-14, 19-17 Friday at the Hammons Student Center.
Junior Erica Haslag helped highlight Bradley’s night with a career-best 30 kills (the most by a Brave since 2005) as she became the 14th player in program history to record 1,000 career kills. SophomoreHannah Angeli added her 17th double-double of the year with 57 assists and 18 digs, while junior libero Yavianliz Rosadowas one assist short of her third double-double of the year with nine assists and a match-high 27 digs.
Bradley (8-16 overall, 1-9 MVC) took a two-sets-to-one lead with a 25-19 win in the third set and later had several chances to close out the road win after holding match-point at 14-12 in the fifth. Missouri State (17-5 overall, 9-0 MVC), which picked up its 10thconsecutive victory, fought off four match points by the Braves and eventually pulled out the 19-17 win in the fifth to take the match. Bradley won two sets on the road against the Bears for the first time since 2010.
In the opening set, Bradley had to rally despite jumping out to an early 5-1 lead and nearly made up a six-point deficit with a 5-0 run which included two Haslag kills to pull within one at 17-16. Missouri State answered with three consecutive points, however, and closed out a 25-17 first-set victory with an 8-1 run.
Bradley got even with a 25-20 win in the second set. Haslag had nine kills on 16 swings with no errors in the second as she helped the Braves hit .341 as a team in the frame. Sophomore Kathryn Graf sparked a 3-0 BU spurt with a kill and Haslag had the final two Bradley points of the stanza on kills as the Braves evened the match at one set each.
Haslag had back-to-back kills early in the third set to open a 7-1 Bradley run, notching her 1,000th career kill during the spurt and helped the Braves grab a 10-3 lead. Missouri State managed to pull within two points at 17-15 before Bradley was able to pull away. With the Braves leading 18-16, Bradley forced four MSU attack errors and senior Jamie Livaudaisadded one of her 17 kills on the night to help give the Braves a 23-16 lead. Bradley went on to take the set 25-19.
Missouri State came out swinging in the fourth and hit a blistering .382 as the Bears forced a deciding fifth set with a 25-14 victory. MSU All-American Lily Johnson had seven kills with no errors in the fourth to lead the Bears.
Bradley trailed by as many as four points (8-4) in the fifth set, before coming back. Livaudais sandwiched a pair of kills around one from Haslag, who had seven kills and five digs in the fifth, to cut the Missouri State lead to one at 8-7. Later in the frame, Haslag gave Bradley an 11-10 lead with a kill and broke ties at 11-11 and 12-12 with two more kills as the Braves held a 13-12 advantage.
Haslag’s 30th kill of the night gave Bradley match point at 14-12, only to have Missouri State answer with back-to-back points to pull even at 14-14. Both teams fought off potential match points before Bradley went back in front 17-16 on a Graf kill. Mikaela Mosquera tied things up again at 17-17 with a kill for Missouri State and Aubrey Cheffey added one of her own to give the Bears an 18-17 edge. Missouri State came up with a block on the next play as the Bears kept Bradley from pulling out its first victory in Springfield, Mo. since 1999.
Rosado’s match-high 27 digs pushed her season total to 493, which now ranks seventh among Bradley season marks and she is just seven digs from the sixth 500-dig season in program history. Haslag moved up three spots on Bradley’s career kills list into 12th with her 30-kill effort and now has 1,014 kills as a Brave. Haslag is the third fastest player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills behind Bradley Hall of Famers Lindsay Stalzer and Jenny Pavlas.
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