Friday, August 27
Peoria, Ill.
3:00 P.M. CT
DePaul University
vs
Southeast Missouri State
Volleyball Opens Season at CEFCU Invitational
8/26/2021 12:05:00 PM | WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Blue Demons set for three-match weekend in Peoria, Illinois
CHICAGO – DePaul women's volleyball opens the 2021 season with a trip to Peoria, Illinois for the CEFCU Invitational and will face Southeast Missouri State, Central Michigan and host school Bradley. The trio of matches are set for August 27 & 28 inside Renaissance Coliseum.
The Blue Demons will open on Friday afternoon with a 3 p.m. match against SEMO before meeting Central Michigan Saturday morning at 10 a.m. The weekend finale against Bradley is set for 7 p.m.
Need to Know
CEFCU Invitational | Peoria, Ill. | Renaissance Coliseum
Friday, August 27 vs. SEMO, 3 p.m.
Saturday August 28 vs. Central Michigan, 10 a.m.
Saturday, August 28 at Bradley, 7 p.m.
Live Stats: SEMO | Central Michigan | Bradley
Live Stream: Bradley
Social Media: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
First Serve
Scouting the Competition
From Head Coach Marie Zidek
"The team is excited to start the 2021 Fall campaign with the CEFCU Invitational. This pre-season, we have scheduled many non-conference opponents that are no strangers to competing for their respective conference titles. We felt front loading our season with these types of teams is a perfect early test for this year's group who is in a conference hunt of their own.
SEMO finished in the Ohio Valley Conference championship last year, Central Michigan is coming off a tremendously competitive campaign in the MAC and Bradley has finished towards the top of the Missouri Valley Conference the past four seasons."
Most of all, we are excited to start our journey together here in match play. We have tremendous depth this year, which hopefully transitions to us being able to get better faster as the season rolls on. Teams are a functional result on weekends of how competitive your practice gym is during the weekdays. Over the course of the next 30 matches you're going to see a variety of personnel impact match outcomes.
I'm excited to see what this group can do as we encounter those pressurized moments and what the group can accomplish by working together through them."
The Blue Demons will open on Friday afternoon with a 3 p.m. match against SEMO before meeting Central Michigan Saturday morning at 10 a.m. The weekend finale against Bradley is set for 7 p.m.
Need to Know
CEFCU Invitational | Peoria, Ill. | Renaissance Coliseum
Friday, August 27 vs. SEMO, 3 p.m.
Saturday August 28 vs. Central Michigan, 10 a.m.
Saturday, August 28 at Bradley, 7 p.m.
Live Stats: SEMO | Central Michigan | Bradley
Live Stream: Bradley
Social Media: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
First Serve
- DePaul returns 13 letter winners from a season ago heading into the 2021 fall slate. The Blue Demons offensive attack is led by two veterans as graduate student Emma Price returns on the right side for her fifth year of eligibility and senior Donna Brown is back to man the middle.
- Junior Bailey Nelson will look to provide a spark on the right side after turning in three double-digit kill performanes in the spring while Jill Pressly is poised for a standout sophomore season after leading the Blue Demons in kills in the spring.
- Libero Rachel Krasowski returns as the leader of the defensive unit after recording 172 digs as a freshman for an average of 3.91 per set.
- Phoenix Lee and Molly Murrihy are tasked with quarterbacking the offense as the Blue Demons returning setters.
- Four newcomers landed in Lincoln Park in early August including sophomore Julia Nagy alongside freshman Ashley Cudiamat, Avery Horejsi and Aly Kindelberger.
- Marie Zidek is in her fourth season leading the program and has guided the Blue Demons to a 20-21 record in the last two seasons of competition.
Scouting the Competition
- SEMO: Julie Yankus and the Redhawks finished the abbreviated spring season with a 14-3 overall record. The Redhawks posted a 14-2 record in the Ohio Valley Conference and earned the No. 3 seed in their conference tournament. Outside hitter Laney Malloy, setter Claire Ochs and right side Colby Greene were all named to the preseason All-OVC Team.
- CENTRAL MICHIGAN: Head Coach Mike Gawlik enters his seventh season at the helm of the Chippewas program. Central Michigan was selected to finish second in the west division of the Mid-American Conference in the preseason coaches' poll. In the spring of 2021, the Chippewas went 11-11 in a conference-only slate. CMU returns two All-MAC honorees in seniors Lisbeth Rosario Martinez and Savannah Thompson.
- BRADLEY: The Braves made an appearance in the MVC semifinals in the spring season for the first tims since 2002 after going 12-6 in conference play. Head Coach Carol Price-Torok enters her sixth season as the leader of the Bradley program. Senior outside Hannah Thompson leads the Bradley attack with over 1,000 career kills.
- DePaul leads the all-time series with SEMO, 5-0. The Blue Demons and Redhawks last met at the Dr. Mary Jo. Wynn Invitational in Springfield, Mo. on August 30, 2019 with DePaul earning the 3-1 victory.
- The Blue Demons hold the 8-3 edge over the Central Michigan Chippewas. Last time out, DePaul claimed a 3-1 victory at the 2019 DePaul Invitational. Current Blue Demons Emma Price and Donna Brown chipped in 13 and 12 kills, respectively.
- In 26 all-time meetings between the two programs, Bradley leads the series 14-12 despite DePaul winning the last four matches. The Braves and Blue Demons met at the 2019 CEFCU Invitational with DePaul returning to Chicago with a 3-1 win.
- In the abbreviated 2020 season played in the spring of 2021, DePaul posted a 6-5 overall record including a 3-5 BIG EAST divisional mark.
- The Blue Demons posted their first winning season since 2015 and went 3-0 in non-conference action including two wins over Iowa State and a victory over consistent NCAA Tournament participant Northern Iowa.
- Jill Pressly earned All-BIG EAST Freshman Team honors after leading the team in kills (115) and second on the squad in digs (89). Pressly's accolade marked the first DePaul freshman to receive a BIG EAST postseason honor since joining the conference in 2005.
- In exhibition action, the Blue Demons took down Illinois State 3-1 on Saturday, August 21 at Redbird Arena. DePaul dropped the first set but rallied to win the next three to clinch the match. Pressly tallied a team-high 14 kills to go along with 15 digs while Nelson chipped in 10 kills of her own. Krasowski collected a match-high 17 digs.
- The BIG EAST Conference announced preseason honors and preseason coaches' poll on August 5. The Blue Demons were picked to finish tied for sixth with Connecticut amongst league foes. Creighton is the preseason favorite receiving eight first place votes.
- DePaul was named to the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Honor Roll for the 2020-21 academic year after posting a cumulative team GPA of 3.713. The Blue Demons stellar performance landed in the top 20% of Division I programs.
From Head Coach Marie Zidek
"The team is excited to start the 2021 Fall campaign with the CEFCU Invitational. This pre-season, we have scheduled many non-conference opponents that are no strangers to competing for their respective conference titles. We felt front loading our season with these types of teams is a perfect early test for this year's group who is in a conference hunt of their own.
SEMO finished in the Ohio Valley Conference championship last year, Central Michigan is coming off a tremendously competitive campaign in the MAC and Bradley has finished towards the top of the Missouri Valley Conference the past four seasons."
Most of all, we are excited to start our journey together here in match play. We have tremendous depth this year, which hopefully transitions to us being able to get better faster as the season rolls on. Teams are a functional result on weekends of how competitive your practice gym is during the weekdays. Over the course of the next 30 matches you're going to see a variety of personnel impact match outcomes.
I'm excited to see what this group can do as we encounter those pressurized moments and what the group can accomplish by working together through them."
Players Mentioned
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/ WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALLEpisode 24: Marie Zidek, Women's Volleyball
Tuesday, September 02
Bowling Green vs. DePaul - NIVC Great 8
Saturday, December 07
Omaha vs. DePaul - NIVC Second Round
Friday, December 06
Volleyball vs. Omaha - NIVC Super 16
Friday, December 06