The Drake University volleyball team plays its first road Valley matches of the season with matches at UNI and Valparaiso bookending the weekend. The trip begins Friday evening with a 7 p.m. match, followed by a 6 p.m. Monday game at Valparaiso. Both matches will be aired on ESPN+.

The Bulldogs went 1-1 to open the Valley season with a win over Illinois State and loss to Bradley. Overall, the Bulldogs have won four of their last five matches.

Drake leads the league in blocks with 2.54 per set and a pair of Bulldogs in Kacie Rewerts and Ashlynn Kuhn rank in the top five of the league individually. That defense has held four of its last five opponents to less than .140 hitting and only four of 10 opponents have hit .200 or better against the Bulldogs.

Offensively, the Bulldogs are led by reigning MVC Player of the Year Haley Bush who is averaging 3.61 kills per set this season and had 30 kills in the first weekend of MVC action. In the three-set win over Illinois State, 40 of the team's 42 kills were evenly split between Bush, Emily Plock, Mariana Rodrigues and Lindsey Pliapol.

Last season, Drake swept the regular-season series with the Panthers for the first time ever and earned their first win in the series since 1996. Valpo has won six of the last seven meetings in the series with Drake's only win during that span coming in 2019 at Valparaiso.