PEORIA, Ill. ? The Department of Athletics invites the public to join in a celebration to send-off the Bradley soccer team Friday when the Braves depart campus for their third-round NCAA Tournament game against Maryland (10-5-5) Saturday night in College Park, Md.
The team will depart via a charter flight from Byerly Aviation at the Greater Peoria Regional Airport early Friday afternoon. Fans are asked to gather in the Haussler Hall gymnasium at 11:15 a.m. Friday to send the team off. Similar rallies were held in 2006 for the men's basketball team during their run to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
The Braves (15-5-4) advanced to the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship version of the Sweet 16 by outlasting seven-time national champion and the tournament's No. 4 seed, Indiana, in penalty kicks at IU's Armstrong Stadium Wednesday night. After Bradley battled back to forge a 1-1 tie on Stephen Brust's second-half goal, the Braves buried all five of their penalty kicks in the deciding shooting out, prevailing 5-4 when the final Indiana attempt hit off the crossbar.
Having eliminated the 2003 and 2004 national champion Hoosiers, Bradley now faces the 2005 national champion Terrapins in Saturday's third-round game at Ludwig Field on the University of Maryland campus. Saturday's game will kick off at 5 p.m. (CST). Although there will be no television or internet video coverage of Saturday's game, live audio will be available at http://www.wmucsports.com and live stats will be available at www.umterps.com.
Tickets for Saturday's game at Maryland are $10 for adults and $5 for students, children and seniors. The Bradley Department of Athletics made arrangements this morning for a student bus to make the trek to College Park to support the team and the 55-passenger vehicle was sold out by mid-afternoon. The student fan bus will depart Haussler Hall at 4 p.m. Friday, with an overnight stop planned along the route, and will return to Peoria immediately following Saturday night's game.
The winner of the third-round game between Bradley and Maryland will advance to the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship quarterfinals and will face either Big Ten Conference Tournament champion Ohio State or defending national champion UC Santa Barbara Dec. 7, 8 or 9 for the right to go to the College Cup in Cary, N.C.
