Bradley volleyball opened their season this past weekend at the Eastern Illinois Panther Classic. While the Braves finished just one for three at the tournament, head coach Carol Price-Torok was optimistic about her team’s performance, including impressive individual efforts from Juniors Erica Haslag and Yavianliz Rosado.
According to Price-Torok, though winning is extremely important to the program, this early stage of the season is about players fine-tuning their skills and getting prepared for conference play to begin.
Last season, Bradley finished just 2-16 in conference play and 7-22 overall. The Braves will keep looking to improve on their record this year, and while it is still early, Price-Torok said she liked what she saw out of her team at the EIU Panther Classic.
“I think it was a great weekend for us,” Price-Torok said. “We played really tight sets and tight matches throughout the weekend. So it was nice to see competitive volleyball and long rallies. It allowed us to get a glimpse of some specific things that we need to work on as well, like defense and eye work.”
The Braves kicked off their 2017 campaign with an opening-match four-set victory over the University of Memphis. Haslag turned in a match-high 20 kills and Rosado had an impressive debut with 31 digs to help lead Bradley past the Tigers.
After an excellent opening match, the Braves took a step back as they suffered a tough three-set defeat to Horizon League favorite, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.
Bradley was then edged out by tournament-host Eastern Illinois. The Panthers took the first two sets before the Braves impressively rallied for 25-20 wins in both the third and fourth to force a deciding fifth frame. Eastern pulled away and won the final set 10-15.
Despite not being able to complete the comeback, Price-Torok said she took pride in the way her team played against Eastern.
“We weren’t happy about the outcome of the Eastern match, but going down 0-2 and then taking them to five [sets] showed a lot of grit and a lot of fight,” Price-Torok said.
In addition to the way the team competed, Price-Torok said she was also pleased with the play from Haslag and Rosado.
“We had some great individual performances as well this weekend,” Price-Torok said. “Erica Haslag was stellar offensively producing points for us, and Yavi Rosado, our current libero, was digging a lot and really keeping us in rallies.”
Haslag collected 17 or more kills in each match, and averaged a league-best 4.67 kills per set at the EIU Panther Classic, a feat she attributes to the help of Price-Torok.
“I can already tell that I’m so much better than last year, and I think that’s because Carol’s been such an amazing coach,” Haslag said. “I’m excited for the future because I didn’t have nearly as many kills in a weekend last season than I did in this opening one.”
For her performance, Haslag was named scholar-athlete of the week, an award she has won several times previously in her career. However, according to the outside hitter, she is ready to win awards based on her play alone.
“Being scholar-athlete of the week means a lot to me just because it’s related to school as well as volleyball,” Haslag said. “I’m striving to be just ‘athlete’ of the week and not ‘scholar-athlete’ though, just because I’ve already proven myself in the classroom and want to prove myself more on the court.”
The volleyball team will play in Muncie, Indiana this weekend for the Ball State Tournament where they will take on Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, tournament-host Ball State University and Navy. Bradley fans will be able to catch their first home game Sept. 5 against Chicago State University at Renaissance Coliseum.
