PEORIA, Ill. -- A year removed from posting the team’s highest win total since 2005, second-year head coach Jenny Maurer and the Bradley volleyball team held the squad’s first practice of the 2012 season Wednesday at Renaissance Coliseum. 

Returning a strong group of players from a squad which fell one victory short of BU’s first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament appearance since the 2005 campaign, Maurer and the Braves have a great deal of optimism heading into the 2012 season, which is scheduled to open Aug. 24 in Durham, N.C.  In addition to returning the team’s top two attackers, Bradley brings back four starters from last year along with welcoming five talented freshmen.

After posting the first winning home record since 2005 and matching the squad’s MVC win total from the three previous seasons combined, the Braves look to improve their league win total for the third consecutive year.

Seniors Madelyn Ervin (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentagy) and Jessica McNellis (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove South) will help provide leadership for a young group which features five freshmen and three sophomores.  One of the team’s most experienced outside hitters, Ervin averaged 1.91 kills per set in Valley play and is expected to see an increased role in the offense after moving to the right side. 

The 6-foot-3 McNellis has battled injuries throughout her career, but provided Bradley with solid play at middle blocker in the spring and will challenge for more time in her final season.

Helping highlight the returning group are juniors Alise Tupuritis (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) and Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan).  In 2011, Tupuritis returned to the form she showed early in 2009 before a season-ending injury which also hurt her production in 2010, averaging a team-best 2.97 kills per set.  Her kill average was the best for a Brave since 2007 and she reached double figures in kills a team-best 16 times.

Angelos enters her junior season as the squad’s active career leader in kills and blocks after pacing the team with a .282 attack percentage as a sophomore.  She earned all-tournament in two of three events last year and averaged 2.75 kills per set in Valley play.

Junior Lauren Zerante (Elmhurst, Ill./York) has started 30 matches during the last two years and provides Bradley with an experience defensive specialist.  Zerante is the team’s active career leader in digs (302) and has averaged 2.22 digs per set during her first two seasons on The Hilltop.

Bradley also will benefit from the return of sophomore setter Madison Kamp (Orland Park, Ill./Chicago Christian), who is the fourth player in school history to record 1,000 assists as a freshman and was the only individual to start all 28 matches last year.  Her team-high eight double-doubles were the most by a Brave since 2008 and most by a Bradley freshman since 2000. 

Fellow sophomore Courtney Keefe (Lemont, Ill./Lemont) came on late in the 2011 season, averaging 3.13 kills per set over the final nine matches.  The only player on the team last year with 150 kills and 200 digs, Keefe was a two-time MVC Freshman-of-the-Week selection, taking home two of the final five awards of the year.

After having her 2010 season cut short due to injury, sophomore middle blocker Allie Falter (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) looks to build upon her return to the court from last season.  Falter started eight matches in her first full season with the Braves and will help bolster Bradley’s play at the net.

A five-player freshman class, which includes two players from the state of Illinois, will help push the returners.  At 6-foot-3, middle blocker Cordelia Murphy (Marseilles, Ill./Marquette) is the tallest player on the roster and will challenge for time.  Murphy helped her high school team to four consecutive conference titles and an IHSA Elite Eight appearance in 2010.

Outside hitter Jessie Tulacka (Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove North) is one of three freshmen to be named to last year’s Under Armour High School All-American watch list and led her squad to a pair of regional titles.  Joining Tulacka on the outside is Kristi Chynoweth (Parkland, Fla./North Broward Prep).  The first Bradley volleyball player from Florida, Chynoweth averaged 3.4 kills per set as a senior.

A high school teammate of Falter, defensive specialist Lea Sack (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) helped her high school team to a Class B state championship as a senior.  Setter/defensive specialist Jessica Teel (San Antonio, Texas/Claudia Taylor Johnson) is Bradley’s first volleyball player from Texas.  She helped her team to a Class 5A state semifinal appearance as a senior and won a state championship as a freshman at Bracken Christian School before transferring.

Bradley opens the 2012 season Friday, Aug. 24 against Elon at the North Carolina Central Invitational in Durham, N.C.  and the Braves will open the home slate Sept. 4 against Saint Louis.