Press "Enter" to skip to content

Volleyball win pair, lose one in Kansas City

Senior Kelsey Cave is in mid-flight, preparing to spike the ball into the opposing zone. Cave is hitting .378 this year, best on the team this year. Photo via bradleybraves.com.
Senior Kelsey Cave is in mid-flight, preparing to spike the ball into the opposing zone. Cave is hitting .378 this year, best on the team this year. Photo via bradleybraves.com.

The Bradley women’s volleyball team finished its last non-conference tournament in Kansas City last weekend. The results ended in the team’s favor as the Braves picked up two wins in three matches at the Kangaroo Klassic. Bradley picked up victories over Nebraska-Omaha and Cornell Friday and lost their final match of the tournament to the host team, Missouri-Kansas City Sunday.

Head coach Carol Price-Torok said she was happy with the way her team was able to pick up the wins over the weekend while having to worry about other games the same day and throughout the rest of the weekend.

“I thought [the team] did a good job of putting back to back wins together,” Price-Torok said. “I think when you go to those tournaments, you’re focusing on more than one opponent. Not just over the weekend but in a day … so I was really pumped that the girls could grasp the concepts of what we were trying to do preparation-wise and execution-wise and really just capitalize on that. “

Outside hitter Erica Haslag said she believes her team is learning more about how to play together, which will be important for the Braves as conference play begins.

“I think our chemistry is really good,” Haslag said. “It’s getting better and better every single game. So, hopefully when we have those tight matches, we can close them out early and fast with those teams that aren’t as good that we know we can beat.”

One of the main reasons this team has played well through the first few weeks of the season is because of the offensive play from Haslag. Haslag leads the team in points with 143.5 and holds a wide margin on the team lead in kills with 125. Price-Torok said she has been pleased with the way Haslag has handled the pressures of being a key piece to this team.

“[Haslag] has done a really good job at managing herself,” Price-Torok said. “She’s really doing some great things, so teams are going to start noticing that, which means their game plans are going to be around stopping her. So, I think this weekend specifically she did a great job of taking that in and embracing it and managing herself throughout the match and really executing on what she can execute on.”

The Braves have two matches this weekend as they begin conference play Friday at Indiana State. They will end the weekend Saturday with their last non-conference matchup of the season against Western Michigan.

Haslag said she realizes once the grind of conferences play begins, there’s going to be a lot more work involved than there was in their non-conference matchups.

“Once we start conference play, we’re scouting so much,” Haslag said. “Every day at practice this week, we’ve been going over what plays they run, what [personnel] they have because we’re going to see these teams more than once this year.”

Copyright © 2023, The Scout, Bradley University. All rights reserved.
The Scout is published by members of the student body of Bradley University. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the University.