The Bradley women’s volleyball team is staring elimination in the face. After two losses this weekend at Evansville and Southern Illinois, it now find itself with a five-match deficit for the six seed in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. In order for the Braves to make the MVC tournament, they need a miracle.
They didn’t find a miracle this past weekend, as they began with a loss at Evansville. Bradley jumped out to a two sets to one lead, but ultimately dropped the last two sets.
“I think we were inconsistent,” head coach Carol Price Torok said. “[Evansville] plays a fast style of offense, and I don’t think we did a good job of executing on the defensive end. So when we gave them a little bit of confidence, they ran with that.”
The losing weekend continued against SIU as Bradley was swept. Once again, Price-Torok said the team just couldn’t control the match.
“We had trouble closing on the outside, and I think that in turn opened up some things for their other offensive players,” Price-Torok said. “They just did a really good job of executing, and it was tough for us to play catch-up.”
As it stands right now, Bradley is on the outside looking in for the MVC tournament. With five matches left in the regular season, the Braves will almost certainly fall short of the conference tournament.
“That’s the reality of where we’re at,” Price-Torok said. “A match here, a match there, and that’s the importance of preparing and respecting everyone in our conference and being ready to get after it. So for us, unfortunately, some of those losses are going to catch up to us in the end. We just have to learn from it and keep moving forward.”
It doesn’t get any easier for Bradley this weekend as they host Wichita State at 7 p.m. tonight and Missouri State at 7 p.m. Saturday. Both Wichita State and Missouri State occupy the top two spots in the MVC.
“From the service line, it’s going to be really important for us so we can knock out at least one of their options,” Price-Torok said. “We really need to make sure we’re up for the task knowing that we belong and that we can play with them. We did some good things when we played at their place, even though we lost in three. We need to get back to that point, take a set and see where it goes from there.”
