PEORIA, Ill. - For the third time in six years, Bradley University is serving as host to every game in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Championship at Shea Stadium.  The top six teams in the regular-season race will begin competing for The Valley's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament Wednesday afternoon, continuing Friday and culminating with Sunday afternoon's televised championship game, all at Shea Stadium.

The tournament will kick off Wednesday with a 3 p.m. quarterfinal between No. 3 seed Missouri State (7-6-3, 4-1-2 MVC) and No. 6 seed Evansville (7-9-1, 3-4-0 MVC).  Wednesday's second quarterfinal is slated for a 6 p.m. start at Shea Stadium and will feature No. 4 seed Drake (8-7-2, 4-2-1 MVC) against tourney host and fifth-seeded Bradley (9-8-2, 3-3-1 MVC). 

In addition to determining the match-up for Friday's second semifinal game, the outcome of the Drake-Bradley meeting also will set the start time for the Bradley men's basketball team's regular-season opener versus Texas A&M-Kingsville Friday night at Carver Arena.  If the Braves knock off Drake Wednesday to advance to Friday's 6 p.m. semifinal versus top-seeded Creighton (12-4-1, 5-1-1 MVC), the Bradley hoops game will tip off at 8:05 p.m. at Carver Arena.  If Drake advances to the soccer semifinals, the Bradley basketball game will start at the traditional 7:05 p.m. time.

Friday's 3 p.m. semifinal will feature the winner of Wednesday's Missouri State-Evansville game against Valley men's soccer newcomer SIU-Edwardsville (9-5-3, 4-1-2 MVC), the tournament's No. 2 seed.  The two semifinal winners will play for the title Sunday at 1 p.m. in a game that will be televised on the MVC-TV Network (FS Midwest, FS Indiana and FS Kansas City).

The Braves secured their spot in the field with a hot regular-season finish.  Bradley owns a 4-1-1 record in its last six games, highlighted by a 2-1 win Saturday at #10 Creighton.  The strong finish could have dated back seven games, though, as it started immediately after the Braves suffered a 2-1 home loss to Drake Oct. 13.  Bradley held a 1-0 lead, only to see the Bulldogs score twice in the game's final three minutes to escape Shea Stadium with the win.

Bradley has reached the championship game each of the three previous years the Braves have hosted at least the final two rounds of the State Farm MVC Tournament, but their only tourney title was won in 2007 at Creighton.  Bradley suffered 2-1 overtime losses to #9 Missouri State in 1999 at Becker Park and #18 Creighton in 2006 at Shea Stadium.  The Braves also suffered a 2-0 loss to #18 Creighton in the 2005 final at Shea Stadium

Individual session tickets for the 2010 State Farm MVC Men's Soccer Championship are $6 for adults, $3 for youth ages 3-18 and $3 for students of the six competing institutions.  All-session tickets are available for $12 for adults and $6 for youth and college students.  Ticket sales will begin one hour prior to kick off each day at the Shea Stadium Box Office.  Shea Stadium parking is $3.