EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville volleyball team will make a road trek this weekend that takes them from Peoria, Ill. to Chicago as they face Bradley and Loyola in Missouri Valley Conference play.
 
Friday sees UE take on the Braves before they travel to take on the Ramblers Saturday evening.  Both matches begin at 7 p.m.  Evansville enters play with a 7-13 overall record and 2-7 in the Valley while Bradley is 10-8 (4-5) MVC and Loyola has gone 8-13 and 3-6 thus far in its first trip through the MVC.
 
In last Friday's match versus SIU, Emma Roberson tied her season mark with 13 kills.  It was a strong comeback following a 4-match stretch that saw her record a total of 7 kills.  She hit .235 in the match after hitting just .000 in the previous four matches combined.
 
An impressive aspect for the Purple Aces has been their size in the middle.  One of the main areas that has impacted has been the number of blocks that the Aces have accumulated.  Through nine league matches, Evansville has posted 58 total blocks while allowing the same by the opposition.  Despite the Aces' overall record in the league, that is a very impressive statistic.  Meaghan Holmes and Rachel TenHoor each have 6 solo and 20 block assists in MVC play.
 
One of the places where points may be lost very easily for a team is in the initial serve.  Evansville has done a solid job of not giving those points away, committing just 27 service errors in Valley play.  That is significantly less than the opposition, which has posted a total of 64 service errors.
 
Bradley's 4-5 record through the first half of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season schedule is the team's best record at the halfway point of the league schedule since 2005 (6-3), but the Braves have been better in the second half of league play lately. In each of the last three years, BU has earned a better record in the second half of the Valley schedule compared to the first half and has matched or improved the win total from the first half of league play in each of the last seven seasons.
 
Each of Bradley's last five matches have been three-set contests, marking the first time since late October/early November of the 2011 campaign the Braves played five consecutive three-set matches.
 
Libby Bresser of Loyola continues to be a consistent defensive force at the net for the Ramblers. She currently sits fifth on Loyola's career list in solo blocks (rally scoring era only) and she is just 29 block assists shy of cracking the top five in that category. In addition, her career average of 0.95 blocks per set is good for fifth all-time in Loyola history.
 
Maureen Carls has had a bit of an up-and-down season but has shown extended glimpses of her potential. Carls got out of the gates quickly in 2013 - being named most valuable player at the ECU Invitational - before hitting a rough patch. She has rebounded nicely over the last couple of weeks, reaching double figures in kills in two of Loyola's last three matches (Bradley, Missouri State).