BRAVES LOOK TO END CONFERENCE SKID
? The Bradley soccer team will play its third and final Missouri Valley Conference home game this Saturday night, hosting the Missouri State Bears at 7 p.m. at Shea Stadium.
? The Braves enter the contest with a 6-7-1 overall record and a 1-2-0 MVC record, dropping their last two league games to Creighton (2-0 on Oct. 18) and Drake (4-1 on Oct. 22).
? Bradley's current two-game conference losing streak is its longest since 2003.
? Missouri State is 4-7-4 overall and 1-1-1 in The Valley, playing to a scoreless draw against #2 Creighton last Tuesday night.
? The Bears' lone conference victory came Oct. 15 at Evansville, a 2-0 road triumph over the Purple Aces.
? Saturday's match will be the third Missouri State has played d at Shea Stadium this season after the Bears participated in the Country Inn & Suites Homecoming Classic earlier this month, claiming second place with a 1-1-0 record.
The Series
? Saturday's match will be the 24th all-time between Bradley and Missouri State.
? Missouri State owns a 14-5-5 record against Bradley, including a 7-2-1 mark in games played on Bradley's home field.
? The two squads have played at least one match against each other every year since 1988.
? The Bears have never lost against the Braves at Shea Stadium, owning a 1-0-1 record at the former baseball facility.
? In last season's meeting, The Bears and Braves played to a 1-1 tie in Springfield, Mo., making Missouri State the only team in the Missouri Valley Conference the Braves did not defeat last season.
? The Braves have won just one game against the Bears in its last seven tries, claiming a 1-0 victory on Nov. 5, 2005 at Missouri State.
BRAVES DROP MID-WEEK CONTEST
? Playing on a weeknight for the first time this season, Bradley allowed three first half goals in a 4-1 Missouri Valley Conference loss at Drake on Wednesday night.
? Junior Chris Cutshaw netted his team-high ninth goal of the season on a 74th minute penalty kick.
? Sophomore goalkeeper Jim Schultz saw his first action as a Brave, making three saves and allowing one goal in the final 45 minutes against the Bulldogs.
? The loss ended Bradley's eight-game unbeaten streak against the Bulldogs and dropped Bradley's record against Drake in Des Moines to 4-6-1.
SATURDAY IS SENIOR NIGHT
? Bradley University will recognize three players prior to Saturday's match against Missouri State.
? Fifth-year senior Brad Snook and fourth-year juniors Brian Lock and Joti Baruni will be the players honored during the pre-game ceremony.
? Snook is the only senior on the 2008 roster, the fewest for Bradley since 1988 when Vann Keomuongchang was Bradley's lone senior.
? Lock and Baruni are both scheduled to graduate during the 2008-09 school year.
SCOUTING THE BEARS
? Missouri State enters Saturday's match against Bradley with a 4-7-4 overall record and a 1-1-1 MVC mark.
? After starting the campaign with a 1-5-3 record through Sept. 27, the Bears have gone 3-2-1 since a 2-0 victory over Howard at the Country Inn & Suites Homecoming Classic on Oct. 3.
? The Bears are just 1-3-0 in true road games, earning its lone victory at Evansville on Oct. 15 (2-0).
? Through its first 15 games, the Bears have scored just 12 goals, an average of 0.8 goals per game.
? The Bears are last in the Missouri Valley Conference in shots (154), points (31), goals (12) and assists (7).
? The Missouri State offense is led by a pair of freshman midfielders in Heath Melugin (3 G, 1 A) and Jordan Barnes (2 G, 1 A).
? Sophomore goalkeeper Alex Riggs has played all 1,276 minutes in net for the Bears this season, posting a 4-7-4 record with 76 saves and a 1.20 goals against average.
? Head coach Jon Leamy is in his 17th season as a head coach, all at Missouri State, owning a 172-122-30 career record.
? Leamy's 172 career victories are most all-time for a Missouri Valley Conference coach.
HEAD COACH JIM DeROSE
? Jim DeRose (Johnson State ?89) is in his 13th season as a head coach, all at Bradley, and was the 2007 Soccer America National Coach of the Year.
? DeRose and his staff have been named the Missouri Valley Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in each of the last two seasons.
? After serving as an assistant coach at former MVC member Illinois State from 1992 through 1994 and one year as an assistant at Richmond, the then 27-year-old DeRose took over a struggling Bradley program in 1996 and has turned the Braves into a consistent winner.
? DeRose enters Wednesday with a 149-92-26 (.607) career record, needing one more victory to become the third coach in Missouri Valley Conference history to win 150 games.
? His 149 wins represent 74.5 percent of Bradley's 200 victories in the 21-year history of the program.
