PEORIA, Ill. -- A six-game victory streak that led to winning the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship on the last day of the season has made Bradley (14-4-1) a near consensus pick as the No. 25 team in the country. A day after debuting in the CollegeSoccerNews.com Top 30 poll at No. 25, the Braves also have been ranked 25th in the Soccer America Men's College Top 25 and tied for 25th in the SoccerTimes.com Top 25 Coaches Poll, both released Monday evening.
The National Soccer Coaches Association of America will release its adidas Senior College national and regional rankings later today. Bradley was ranked fourth in last week's NSCAA Midwest Region rankings before ending the season with a 4-1 victory last Tuesday versus the region's third-ranked team, Illinois-Chicago, and wrapping up the Valley regular-season crown with a 1-0 win Saturday at Missouri State, the region's fifth-ranked team.
The national rankings are the first for the Braves since they checked in at No. 19 in the NSCAA/adidas Senior College Rankings Nov. 10, 2003.
Having secured its second Valley regular-season title, Bradley will try for its first State Farm MVC Tournament crown this week when the Braves host the six-team championship Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at Shea Stadium. The tournament will kickoff with a pair of quarterfinal games Wednesday evening: Vanderbilt versus Eastern Illinois at 5 p.m. and Drake versus Missouri State at 7:30.
Friday's semifinal round will feature a pair of nationally-ranked teams. Second-seed Creighton (10-4-3), which is ranked as high as 17th in the three polls released Monday, will face the winner of the Vanderbilt/Eastern Illinois game in the first semifinal at 5 p.m. Friday. Bradley will take on the Drake/Missouri State winner in Friday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal game. The two semifinal winners will meet in the championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Single-session tickets for the 2005 State Farm MVC Men's Soccer Championship are $6 for adults and $2 for youth (K-12) and seniors. Bradley University students who present a valid ID will receive free admission, thanks to the support of the Bradley Chiefs Club. All-session adult tickets are $10 and will provide admission to all five tournament games, an $8 value compared to the $18 cost to buy the tickets individually. In addition, the first 500 children to attend Sunday's championship game will receive free admission.
