PEORIA, Ill. – The Drake University volleyball team earned its 20^th win of the season with a 3-0 sweep at Bradley Friday, Oct. 27, evening to remain in third place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings.
 
The Bulldogs swept the Braves by set scores of 25-20, 25-22, 25-18, while registering 42 kills and hitting .205 to record their first 20-win season since 2010.

"This is a huge milestone for us and I'm really proud of our team tonight," said Drake head coach Darrin McBroom. "This was one of our two big goals for our program and to be only one of only six teams since 1982 in program history to win 20 games is a big accomplishment for this team."
 
Drake (20-6, 9-3 MVC) was led Cathryn Cheek (Coppell, Texas) and Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) each recording double-doubles. Cheek registered 15 kills on 40 attempts with 12 digs while Inderski had 10 kills and 19 digs.
 
Freshman Gillian Gergen (Janesville, Iowa) led the defensive effort at the net with five blocks while Inderski added four.
 
Bradley (9-17, 2-10 MVC) was paced by Erica Haslag's 14 kills as Drake's defense limited the Braves to .161 hitting to earn the Bulldogs' sixth-straight win over the Braves.
 
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 7-1 lead to start the first set and stretched that to a 16-8 advantage. Bradley put together a brief 5-2 run to pull within two, 20-18, but Drake scored five of the next seven points with two kills from Cheek giving the Bulldogs the 25-20 win.
 
Bradley led for the majority of the second set and held a 20-18 lead late. However, Drake answered with a 7-2 run to close the set and earn the 25-22 win. Four different Bulldogs registered kills during that span to give Drake a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission.
 
After the break, the Bulldogs built up a small, 13-11, lead until engineering a 6-2 run to build up a comfortable lead that they maintained in taking the set, 25-18, to win the match, 3-0, and earn their 20^th win of the season.
 
The Bulldogs remain in central Illinois for their next match, a Saturday evening contest at Illinois State. First serve against the Redbirds is set for 7 p.m. and the contest will be broadcast on The Valley on ESPN3.