The Bradley women’s volleyball team finished up the 2014 season with weekend matchups against the University Northern Iowa and Drake just before the Thanksgiving break. The Braves lost to UNI in three sets on Friday, but topped Drake in four on Saturday to conclude the season.
Junior Lea Sack tied the university’s record for digs in a three-set match with a season-best 22 digs in a strong defensive effort for Bradley. The Braves put forth one of their best defensive efforts of the year, but it wasn’t enough to shut down the Panthers’ attack.
Freshman Taylor Thiele led the Braves offensively with 12 kills and added 11 digs for her seventh double-double of the season. Sophomore Melissa Hoerber added a career-best 20 digs, but the Panthers prevailed winning all three sets (25-22, 26-24 25-13).
“We had the opportunities, and I was pleased with how we looked and how we were executing,” head coach Jenny Maurer said. “We were playing right there with the number two team in the conference, but we just couldn’t finish.”
The Braves didn’t have to let the loss against UNI sit for long as they had another chance at victory the next night against Drake; and they did just that. Freshman Jamie Livaudais recorded 10 of her match-high 18 kills in the fourth set.
She was one of four Bradley players who reached double figures in kills, joined by teammates Madison Kamp (15), Taylor Thiele (12), and Kelsey Cave (11).
Bradley won the first set and held a late lead in the second set, but Drake made a late push to come up on top to tie the match at one each. The Braves rebounded with a third set victory on their way to taking the fourth set to beat the Bulldogs in four sets (25-15, 25-27, 27-25, 25-23).
“There was definitely a sigh of relief to get the monkey off our back,” Maurer said. “Learning how to win is something you don’t forget, and the importance of winning collectively is something that can’t be overlooked.”
Looking at Bradley’s record is not the best place to find an accurate summary of the Braves’ season.
“It was a season of firsts,” Coach Maurer said. “We started the year with a redshirt [Rachel Jones] not returning and another player [Courtney Keefe] having her career end, both due to injuries. We graduated our two top scorers the year before and our Libero. We only had five practices the entire season with all 12 of our players healthy and able to participate.”
The team didn’t expect any of those things to happen, and they didn’t let it define their season either.
“Resilience is the word that comes to mind first,” Maurer said. “I was most proud of our team’s resilience and ability to overcome adversity.”
The Braves are looking forward to next season and are already anxious to get it underway.
“We’re adding a solid recruiting class, only graduating one player from this team, and have a redshirt from last season intending to play depending on her health, ” Maurer said. “Our job now is to start building depth in every position so we can compete at the highest level.”
